The Recorder Group

Leader:  Joan Gibson - recorder@ashbyu3a.co.uk -

The recorder group, meet twice a month, to make music in a relaxed, fun way. I would hope that we would be able to cater for a wide range of experience and skill. We usually meet each month on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 10am, but occasionally it varies. Check here for up to date information.

May

At the first meeting in May there were 14 of us, but no bass players, so the music was chosen to accommodate this. Fortunately we have quite a lot of this, dating back to our earlier days when we didn't have anyone who could play bass.

We experimented a bit with dividing descants and tenor recorders so they were not always playing the notes they expected. This is most probably very wrong musically, but gives us a chance to see what other parts are playing.

At the end, eight of us stayed for a rehearsal of the pieces we were to play at a concert with Boundary Singers Ladies choir on the Saturday evening. Initially we planned to stay for half an hour, but eventually stopped after nearly two productive hours.

At the concert, at Linton Heath Methodist Church, we were able to use our new banners for the first time. Our performance was not perfect, but seemed to be well received, particularly The Wombles song and The Hippopotamus.

At the second meeting, on 21st, there were 15 of us, including two basses. Patrick came again to conduct us, so we started the practice 30 minutes late, to allow for his train times, and also had a short tea/coffee break. We played three pieces: Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, ‘Simple Gifts’, and ‘Airs and Dances’ by Gaspar Sanz. We play the first of these fairly often, so we do it fairly well, but Patrick was able to improve our playing of it. ‘Simple Gifts’ went well, but the ‘Airs and Dances’ is more difficult, especially No.5. It was written originally for guitar, and the tunes are quite well-known. It was useful to have Patrick’s comments and suggestions, as well as his conducting. We plan to play the first two of these pieces at the Festival at York in July. We will need to have some extra practices before then!

Next month's meetings as usual, on the first and third Thursdays of the month. We may change the pattern in July, as those of us playing at York will be busy there on the first Thursday, and we can use the 2nd and 4th Thursdays instead. This is not yet confirmed!