Monday, May 11, 2009
Friends...
What do these movies have in common?
The Mission
Willow
Young Guns
Field of Dreams
The Patriot Games
Clear and Present Danger
Braveheart
Jumanji
Legends of the Fall
Apollo 13
The Devils Own
Titanic
The Mask of Zorro
The Shipping News
The Missing
Mighty Joe Young
Beyond Borders
Four Feathers
Troy
They all have a musical soundtrack featuring my old friend from my London days Tony Hinnigan, who was the cellist in my string quartet. We were quite successful in a student kind of way and had visions of world fame but the quartet fizzled out as we all realized that we actually had to make a living somehow or other; and playing chamber music, lovely as it was, was not the way to put food on the table, especially if you had a growing family-- which I, at that point, did not yet have, but 2 of the others did.
Tony just has to be about the most versatile musician I know-- classically trained cellist who found his international niche in playing whistles. You know, like "penny whistle" or ocarina or pan pipes or any of those things... he has hundreds of them. He also plays dozens of obscure ethnic drums and other things you hit, but in a musical way. Any time a movie composer of international repute needs something that is neither rock guitar nor piano nor straight symphony orchestra, he may end up needing Tony. His first big success was playing all the flutes in the movie Titanic, and of course single-handedly making the film the world-wide blockbuster it became.
He has not lost sight of his roots though, and still teaches master classes in classic cello repertoire, doing Beethoven and Mozart-- but if you are lucky enough to attend one of his classes, make sure to follow him to the pub afterwards, where over a beer or 3 he will tell amazing stories and probably at some point pull a whistle out of his pocket.
And his blog is amazingly funny and well written.
