This weekend I went to a very unusual concert in the historic setting of Trinity College chapel in Cambridge.  It was part of the early musical festival.  It featured a Norwegian group of singers call Trio Medieval, who played with Arve Henriksen.  They sang largely unaccompanied, apart from Arve.  Their repertoire was based on 12-13th century music, both religious and folk based. 

They sang magnificently but what interested me is that, of course, there are no recordings of how this music sounded all those years ago.  Records of the music are sketchy and the music has been handed down from generation to generation, no doubt changing as it went.  They say that they find freedom in this vagueness and use what they know to as a basis for their music rather than feeling straight-jacketed by tradition. 

Arve, plays a trumpet, but makes sounds with it that sound like anything but a trumpet, using modern technology to further change and modify his sounds.  At times it sounded more like jazz than monastic music. 

The fact is Change is just doing something different with something familiar.  I wasn’t certain whether I would want to hear much more of their music but I was sure I was very pleased to have been there.  It was fascinating to hear something so familiar turned on its head and presented afresh.  If you want to change, forget the rules, just play, explore and see where that leads you.  Rules are just short-cuts but they always lead back to the familiar.

“If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.”   Marilyn Monroe

“Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.”   Thomas A. Edison