Live Music Review: Thom Dowd & Gorse Ferraris @ Cairo

Second Life Live Music Review
Written by Enniv Zarf (RL: Paul Kwo)
Classical Music in Second Life
Thom Dowd
Gorse Ferraris
Cairo Theatre
4.5 stars out of 5 stars

I wonder how many of you really know what kind of music really exist in Second Life. I am sure some have touched and experienced a huge amount, but I'm sure most people only go to what they would usually go in real life. Well here is something that is totally off the radar of must people even in real life, early music. To be specific Renaissance music.

Though most of us have seen these Renaissance fair on TV shows and movies. Sorry "A Knight's Tale" doesn't count since they played more Hip Hop then they did Renaissance. Though I guess the roots of them all are the same. No matter though, how many of us actually really attended a live Renaissance event?

Well here's your chance to tell your friends that you are cultured and educated in music and life. Thom Dowd is an avid promoter of early music. He is also the founder of the group Early Music in Second Life. And he has a ton of recordings released online for purchase so if you are looking for some Renaissance music for your role plays, you know where to go now.

I don't know of that many other...

...early music performers in Second Life, but I have came across a couple while working with the Second Life Shakespeare Company as their voice director. Yes I directed the voice performance of all the SL Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare productions of Shakespeare works so far. If you've never caught one of those, well makes sure you do when they perform again. In fact if you've never seen a Second Life theatre production by SLSC, Act Up or Avatar Repertory Theatre, you are totally missing out on some really mind blowing experiences.

Well Thom (real life Thomas Coard) is definitely one of the best Renaissance music performers in Second Life and he performs live with Gorse Ferrari today, and the delivered very sweet tunes by a wide variety of Renaissance composers. The performances were all wonderfully performed though not totally flawless as some of the other classical musicians here are closer to. But they sure are darn close to. The tones both him and Gorse produce out of their recorders are just absolutely beautiful.

Thom certainly draws a great crowd to his concert, 41 avatars at the bottom of the hour. Of course many of them are very familiar faces of the Second Life Classical music community. Still it's wonderful to know that there are great supporters of early music in Second Life. Seriously there is no excuse to not at least check out these other types of music even for ten minutes when it's free and you can do it at the comfort of your own living room.

When Thom and Gorse performed works of the great Renaissance composer Josquin des Prés, it was just gorgeous. The two of them just blended so well together and created a very wonderful sonority that was just a delight to hear. He also referred to his blog that has articles about the composer so if you're up for a quick history lesson, check it out. I can always use a refresher course of music history, or does that bring back up all my memories of these crazy music history classes back at college. I remember one class where I had to listen and be able to identify and discuss near 80 tracks of music for one exam, and the ID section was like only one tenth of the test. But that's what I get for doing music.

Of course in the holiday season, no concert would be complete without Christmas music. But it is of course much more fitting for an early musician to play them. And boy are they haunting and beautiful. His duet performance of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" with Gorse was just fantastic and just so fitting. It just reminds us that music doesn't have to be all that jazz, and it doesn't need to be filled with an army of people with a bunch of different instruments. Two simple recorders will do just fine. But speaking of recorders, though he sounds beautiful, the recorder animation is not on par with his playing. I think he deserves a better animated recorder. I will just say that the hand positions and the swaying from side to side is just not at all flattering to Thom's performance. But then who cares really, all we really care about is the music here and the rest is just for show.

In the end, Thom creates wonderful sounds that is stylistically correct with the period as well as beautiful and charming. This holiday season is definitely the perfect time to check out his music. But you are not likely going to find his posting at your normal Live Music groups. You'll either have to join the Classical Music group or you will have to contact Thom directly for his upcoming concert. Either way I think he'll be a delightful treat for your ears this holiday season to listen to such wonderfully simple music to take us back a little and relief ourselves from the chaos of holiday shopping.