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Peter Kimpton
By The Landlord
"Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.” - T.S. Eliot (Burnt Norton, Four Quartets I)
"Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.” – Bertolt Brecht
"My studio is a fantastic combination of old and new, and that's how I've always liked to work." – Kate Bush
“Nothing ever dies
it only changes
into something else
like old songs
that blow gently
into new ears
to find new meanings.” –Nalini Priyadarshni,Doppelganger in My House
Crunkcore on the cornet, soul music on the sackbut, hip-hop on the harpsichord, Latin house on the lute,viking metal on the violin,medieval madrigals on a Moog orMIDI Multitimbral Module, trad jazz on theTenori-On, sea shanties or semba on theSamchillian, or ragtime on theRoland TR-808,anyone? These might be a little far fetched, but much of the most interesting music at least combines differentelements of the old and new.
But what is old, and what is new? Of course all music at least partly derives older ideas. But, for the purposes of this topic, that clever magpie Noel Gallagher or thousands of other bands rehashing Beatles or other classic chord progressions or melodies to make satisfying rock or pop might not be enough. So this week we're seeking the fusion of starkly contrasting elements from different eras, whether they be instruments, genres and or artists that mark out definite spans of time, and while being audibly diverse, come together to create something pleasingly different and hopefully original. It’s all about the combinations.
So, this could be old songs covered on new instruments, new songs played on old instruments, older, or more traditional musicians playing with younger ones, old styles mashed up with the new, in any combination, whether they are cover versions and collaborations or new compositions. The key point is that both older and newer aspects are present.
What qualifies as "old" and "new" is subjective of course. In everything we do there is a process of taking in and using both. As the saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean, but an old broom knows the corners. And “Win new friends but keep the old. The first are silver. The latter gold,” comes another proverb, coined by many, includingJoseph Parry.
But where does all this lie with music? Very contrasting artists can co-exist during the same times, traditional or innovative in their own ways, whether that’s Yehudi Menuhin and Louis Armstrong, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Little Richard, Arvo Pärt and Prince, but in terms of genre, style and more, within individual song or instrumental examples, there would have to be a stark difference of at least a generation or more, of a few decades, with elements clearly belonging to different eras. So this is primarily a musical topic, but contrasting lyrical re-interpretations can also come into play, as long as both old and new are discernible in the song or music, marking a co-existence of past from a particular present, be that of any mix of genres, from the most puritanical, ethereal medieval work, to the most modern blip-crunch alt-experimental pop.
How then could this work? Let’s have a few examples. Here’s Orkestra Obsolete playing New Order's Blue Monday using instruments that were far popular in the 1930s, or least were in some fashion, including a musical saw, wine glasses, theremin, harmonium and a piano played like a zither.
And using old instruments for new music stretches back further into other centuries way before the 20th. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra runs a New Music for Old Instruments initiative, playing new compositions on traditional instruments. But how about the voice stretching back to pluck old songs into the present?
Widening eras even further, South Korea has spawned some very interesting musical fusions of ancient and modern. Here's the groupSsingSsing, performing songs from traditionalKorean and Japanese folk– minyo. This is an acoustic performance, but they mould them into styles includingglam rock,disco, reggae andpsychedelic rock.Minyo is a 20th-century word translated from the German Volkslied (folk song), but some of the songs reinterpreted date back several centuries:
Other South Korean bands that marry the ages in all sorts of fascinating ways includeAkdan Gwangchil and이날치 (Leenalchi):
Technology and technique also come into play with new instruments that not only make new sounds but also redefine the physical and creative process. Electronic instruments, whether software or other interfaces are revolutionising the range of instruments and their mixes, but also the method of playing, some reducing 10 fingers down to one such as on the Tenori-On or the Korg Kaossilator, turning the process more to button light-sound combinations across a touch-sensitive screen.
But one of the more intestersting newer instruments is the Eigenharp, which arguably can be an alternative even to the electric guitar. Here’s a demonstration playing the James Bond theme:
Marrying a century of change, PJ Harvey’s 2011 album Let England Shake was largely inspired by and written on the 1920s instrument the Autoharp, invented soon after the First World War, which is of course the central theme her profoundly earth-shattering songs. Here she plays it on The Words That Maketh Murder:
And now, here at the Bar there are again a variety of visitors, new and old eager to synthesise the topic with civilised discussion.
“It’s funny how new things are the old things,” pronounces Rudyard Kipling, to get the ball rolling. “Sooner or later, everything is new again,” says modern, but now also older popular author Stephen King. “Yes, all news is old news happening to new people,” says another more traditionalist old thing, Malcolm Muggeridge, who is actually the old into his own new, but is also something already said by Henry David Thoreau, who said: “All news is old news with new dates.”
But let’s hear from some musicians. Jimi Hendrix famously, and to outrage in some quarters, played his own version of the Star Spangled Banner:
But why? He explains here, with an argument that still rings true today: "It's time for a new National Anthem. America is divided into two definite divisions. The easy thing to cop out with is sayin' black and white. You can see a black person. But now to get down to the nitty-gritty, it's getting' to be old and young - not the age, but the way of thinking. Old and new, actually... because there's so many even older people that took half their lives to reach a certain point that little kids understand now."
Any other national anthems revised or reinterpretated?
On a more technological front than a socio-political one, Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood is here to remark on the use of software in music. “The trick with computers I think, is to approach old and new things with the same reverence as you would like your favourite chair and not be seduced by the constant innovation otherwise you never do anything."
And that is a rule that has always been around in any field. “The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, says the economist John Maynard Keynes.
“An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it,” says French film director Robert Bresson.
“Science, like life, feeds on its own decay. New facts burst old rules; then newly divined conceptions bind old and new together into a reconciling law,” says William James.
But the old and new can be difficult to combine, perhaps confusing, distracting or overwhelming. How do you make the balance? What is the best way to approach this in a creative manner?
“It's about finding that balance where you have one foot in the familiar, one foot in the unfamiliar.If you have two feet in the unfamiliar it's overwhelming. If you have two feet in the familiar then there's just boredom. It's about having both,” reckons Humble The Poet.
And with such thoughts and examples, it’s time to turn the subject over to you, learned Bar patrons, old and new, and in particular to this week’s guest manager and guru, the highly knowledgeable Nilpferd! Please put your example in comments below for last orders deadline on Monday 11pm UK time (BST), for playlists published on Wednesday. It’ll be past, present and future all at once.
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