h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Paul McCartney's 'Standing Stone' - A1053145
Author: Bels. Support bacteria. It's the only culture some people have. - U188050

This does contain first person singular. Sorry about that.

Bels
19.5.03

It only contains first person singular in the quotes, doesn't it? I didn't notice it elsewhere.

Are there any links to information about standing stones, or about Paul McCartney?

Good entry though, I really enjoyed reading it! Has the music been released on CD do you know?

Was it well received? Or better received than his painting at least?

Sprout

Thanks, Cyzaki

I haven't had time to do any links yet. There's an entry by Gnomon that'll link, and I'm sure there'll be others.

I did mention that it was recorded at Abbey Road. So you can get it on CD, also the premiere live on VHS and DVD video.

This press release from EMI should answer the other questions:

>>> Paul McCartney was commissioned by EMI Records in 1996 to compose a major
orchestral work to mark EMI's 100th anniversary in the autumn of 1997. The
symphonic poem Standing Stone was recorded in the legendary Abbey Road
studios, conducted by Lawrence Foster and performed by the London Symphony
Orchestra. The world premiere was held at the Royal Albert Hall in October
1997, with a 10-minute standing ovation given to its composer by the
capacity audience, and has been released by EMI Classics on both VHS and
DVD-Video. Standing Stone then proceeded to go to No.1 in both classical
charts in the UK and USA and McCartney later won the USA's National Public
Radio New Horizon Award for Standing Stone, in recognition of his work in
broadening the appeal of classical music. <<<

My recollection of the ovation was that it was longer than 10 min. Of course the place was packed with thousands of Paul's fans and lots of celebs and bigwigs from the music industry, so the atmosphere was more like an awards evening than a classical music premiere.

Paul came to quite a lot of the recording sessions, and the fans must obviously have been told because there was always a large crowd of them outside the studios waiting for him to turn up.

I just thought people might have been quite interested in something about McCartney, but maybe not...

Hi, Bels!

I thought I'd check with a colleague who's a long-standing McCartney fan, but that was a total let-down since she hadn't ever listened to 'Standing Stone'. I was very surprised - I wonder does the 'classical' label put off a lot of fans ?

I noticed you put in a link to one of Gnomon's entries - there's another one at A647912 (The Passage Graves of Brú na Bóinne) which covers Newgrange and its standing stones, so it would be worth another link.

The entry is great: it's really readable and provides a good background, and I like the way it deals with the work on its own terms. And of course the crucial test for me is that it makes me want to track down this piece and listen to it (and not just for the sake of upstaging my diehard McCartney fan friend )!

So it's as far as I'm concerned!


Azara

A647912 is called The Neolithic Passage Tombs of Brú na Bóinne.

Yeah, it made me track down the CD (on Amazon.co.uk) and listen to clips of a couple of tracks too!

Not bought it though, because the clips didn't really 'grab' me - well, not as much as this entry did!

Azara, thanks very much for that link. I will add it in.

Cyzaki, I'm not surprised the clips didn't grab you. I don't know what clips they give, but it's not really a very clippable piece. Never mind.

Any further comments or useful links will be much appreciated.

Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away...

Hi Bels.

Although I like Macca's work (particularly with the Beatles), I had no idea that he had ventured in "classical" compositions.

Nice opening, but I would suggest looking at the tenses (use 'was' instead of 'had been'). I assume that the bit about the Oratorio's performers refers specifically to the premiere, yes?

I would also suggest leaving out the word "then" at the opening of the section on "Standing Stone" - it's unnecessary and slightly jarring.

Lastly, some form of header to separate the origin and composition of "Standing Stone" from your description of the piece would be helpful.


I think I'll have to try and get hold of a copy. Your description sounds very interesting

Hi Madent,

Thanks for that .

I thought maybe quite a few people might not be aware of Macca's 'classical' side and might be quite interested in it. He is quite a complex character. And of course Linda was a marvellous photographer. Have you seen any of her work?

I'm not sure what problem you think there is with the tenses . The 'then' follows logically from the 'had been', and it's 'had been' and not 'was' because the entry is about Standing Stone, and he had already written the Oratorio by the time he came to Standing Stone...

If you see what I mean?

I know nothing about this.. but it looks rather good to me..

I don't normally call up more than 100 PR threads at a time, and I don't really want this one dropping off the bottom of the screen, so if anyone has anything to say about this I'd love to hear from you!

Bels

Hi Bels! I was under the impression that the Liverpool Oratorio was written by McCartney and somebody else. McCartney wrote the tunes and the other guy did all the orchestration. This entry gives the impression Paul did it all himself.

Was the composition of Standing Stone the same? Did Paul do it or was it co-written by another person?

It's an interesting comment about Celtic Man and his relation to Standing Stones. The Celts did not erect standing stones (except in very exceptional circumstances). The standing stones were already there when the Celts arrived in Great Britain and Ireland. But I'm sure McCartney doesn't know this.

We tend to think of the composition of a musical work as the writing of the music. McC sees things differently.

He once recorded a song that his dad had written some years earlier. When Paul told him about the recording of the song that he had written, his dad said he had never written any music. When Paul sang the song to him, he replied 'Oh, that one! Yes, I made it up, but I didn't write it'. People like Paul and his dad regard the writing of the piece as the act of notation, not the act of composing it or making it up.

With the Liverpool Oratorio McC would make up the tunes and sing them, and Carl Davis would play them back on the piano and fix the notes on paper. The composer David Matthews also made arrangements of certain parts of it.

With Standing Stone, Matthews had the job of decoding Paul's computer printout and making it readable. Other collaborators were the saxophonist John Harle and the composer Richard Rodney Bennett. Paul was a bit concerned that such people might take over his music and make it into something of theirs, but is adamant that this didn't happen. They arranged, they orchestrated, and so on, but it remains Paul's music.

It's also worth mentioning that during the recording sessions for Standing Stone, which took place before the live premiere, Paul was very much involved and very hands-on, just as an author might be during rehearsals for his new play. There was never any question of Paul providing just some original ideas and leaving it to others to knock them into shape, as it were.

After all, Mozart's requiem is still Mozart, much of Delius was written down by Fenby, and so on.

Regarding your point about the standing stones and the Celts, I wouldn't be so sure about McCartney not knowing about this. He is actually a pretty sophisticated guy, you know. If you had the opportunity to chat to him you might be quite surprised.

Bels

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