Essays by Tommy Halferty

3 Main Areas

Instrumental and musical Skills

Improvisation

Artistic development

Instrumental--- Virtuosity as goal; technique, finger dexterity, classical studies, transcription, harmony, repertoire (playing tunes, composition)

Musical ---Reading, writing and hearing music, intervals, ear training, the use of voice to sing what one hears, knowledge of the keyboard essential because of the ease of visualising sound and colours

Improvisation--- study of chords, scales, harmonic cycles ,rules of tension and release, the analysis and ability to duplicate the legacy through playing and study of the great Jazz masters, saturated listening a special study, the playing in real situations, learning the customs, timing, feel and the repertoire of live improvisation

Theme of Disorder in Macbeth

Order and Harmony in the state is the natural reflection of a good ruler –a man wholly dedicated to the service of the state and in turn the state would have the benefit of his virtues both moral and intellectual. However if a ruler allows passion to dictate his actions then his own life is reduced to chaos and this will be reflected in political anarchy and social disorder. This then is the tragic flaw in the character of Macbeth who allows his passion for 'vaulting ambition' to override his 'single state of man' King Duncan and his loyal subjects on the other hand are the symbols of order and harmony in the kingdom. Duncan's reign is one of 'grace and measureless content' The witches symbolise the entry of evil and anarchy into a world that has been orderly and good. They recognise no moral law,'fair is foul and foul is fair' and they, with their hellish power, deceive Macbeth.

‘The Fall’ (La Chute) (1956) Albert Camus

Much has been written about the French writer Albert Camus (1913-1960). He was, during his short time on the planet, neither a Christian nor an Atheist not even an agnostic. Yet in the absence of a god, he devised a belief based on the contradiction which he referred to as 'the human need for meaning and the unreasonable silence of the world.' This condition drove him to the conclusion that life was certainly absurd and the only opposition to it was revolt, freedom and an unconditionally passion for life itself. This opposition expressed itself so well in his writings from his unwavering commitment to life and the celebration of the body in L'Etranger (1942) to the revolt and abhorrence of any political system without morality as in La Peste (19470) and The Rebel (1951), to his themes of exile in those wonderfully crafted short stories, L'exil et le Royaume.(1957) and his own story, written in the rawness of his voice in a search of self-discovery, a victim of the colonisation in Algeria as much as the Arabs themselves ,in the absence of a father, wealth and happiness , in Le Premier Homme (1994) . Camus' themes are parables for our present age with their searing analysis of exile, the destructive power of political ideologies and the commitment for authenticity and revolt in serving truth and freedom for future generations

Jazz Formation

Theme of Disorder in Macbeth

‘The Fall’ (La Chute) (1956) Albert Camus

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