Letter from London: DIY performance so much more fun

By JOE HARROP

If someone asked you for your favourite type of music, what would you say? If you're into popular music, your answer could be rock, hard rock, rockabilly, rap. Maybe hip-hop's your thing, or pop, grunge, garage, lounge, house, dance, trance, dub, pub Irish, or the enigmatic crossover.

The loose, ambiguous categories of recorded music BCD (Before Compact Disc) have broadened to the above and many other ill-fitting titles, most of which represent the need for music moguls to label an emerging style of music to market it and its practitioners. Sure, everything has to have a name, but all this categorising, imaging and marketing suggests music is merely part of a demographic profile. Just like your hairstyle and your clothes, your favourite music speaks about your character. This is obvious if you have a mohawk, wear black rubber and listen to speed metal.

But this type of pigeonholing is not restricted to popular culture. Everyone does it, even in classical music. If you prefer Russell Watson to Monserrat Caballe, or Pachebel's Canon to Biber's Battalia, do people think less of you? Should they?

What if someone looking fairly "normal" told you they enjoyed listening to contemporary classical music, and performed it in their spare time - what would you think?

This was what I found myself thinking a few weeks ago, leading the orchestra in a Contemporary Music-making for Amateurs (Coma) performance of Stephen Montague's tribute to Hiroshima, Dark Sun.

Montague scores it for "a large orchestral and vocal ensemble of flexible instrumentation and varying individual performance standards". He couldn't have described the band more succinctly. Georgina Cooper, a young Auckland muso, led a cello section that included a doctor, an accountant, and a postal worker, all at different levels of playing.

A young marketing executive, having never sat in an orchestra, distinguished herself in the wine-glass section, alongside three retired senior citizens - one of whom was completely deaf. Seated next to the principal oboe was a man who had invented and was playing on an electric bassoon.

Music teachers, adult learners: these were just a few examples of everyday people taking on the role of performer in music frequently termed difficult, and inaccessible to the average listener.

The performance, by the way, was spectacular. But ask yourself whether you are the "average listener".

Anyone who performs a work, regardless of how they participate, is immediately better-informed when they're in the audience for a similar performance. If you have ever sung the Hallelujah chorus, then been to a performance of the Messiah, you'll know what I mean.

Participation as a performer provides a lifetime backstage pass into the world of live music. England is blessed with a huge number of choral societies, chamber music clubs, and community music ensembles - the brass band, for instance.

However, Coma is exceptional. Since 1993, it has assembled more than 600 works in its contemporary music library. It has an extensive programme of activities, including more than 30 commissions by eminent composers, aimed at promoting and developing contemporary repertoires.

One of the most amazing of these initiatives is the Allcomers' Ensemble, comprising musicians of all ages and experience. This no-auditions, community approach to music-making is a core feature of Coma's work that ensures it caters for players, singers, and composers at all stages of development.

Everyone rehearsed well, took the performance seriously, and consequently brought Montague's disturbing score to life in an incredibly moving way. It was one of the most thought-provoking concerts in which I have played. These were not professional musicians, nor had many ever aspired to be one, yet they played with enough conviction and passion to persuade even the strongest sceptic.

New Zealand has contemporary ensembles that shine with similar missionary zeal: the legendary From Scratch, and Auckland's Karlheinz Company are two that come immediately to mind. Have you heard of them? Maybe you should have a listen.

Coma in Britain, Bang On A Can in the United States, and other like-minded contemporary music initiatives, are on the right track. Getting involved with your favourite music, whatever it might be, is a wonderfully rewarding activity.

Pre-digested, economy-style entertainment is fine if you like your art with four straight sides. However, you run the risk of deep brain thrombosis. Get out there - amend your demographic profile with some music you're proud of and create some of your own labels.