New beginnings

By Dan

Tonight was the third meeting of our new Community Orchestra. It's going really well so far and we are getting on really well with learning some new tunes. 

 

At the moment there are just 7 of us, quite a small but happy band, however we are keen for anyone in the community to come along and join in. It is intended to be an orchestra of community members (hence the name) so if you're a member of the public and you can hold a tune on your instrument, you qualify! We have a mix of ages, "from ten to adult" as they used to print on board game boxes. Please don't be shy.

 

We have 5 violinists, 1 viola and 1 cello at the moment, although some of our versatile young violinists also play flute, so we are going to do some swapping around next week - probably not mid-song but you never can be sure. But if you play the trumpet, the tuba, the telharmonium or anything else, we are confident we can fit you in.

 

 

We have been learning two tunes so far, a piece by local boy Charles Avison and "Salut d'Amour" by Edward Elgar, who was not a geordie though we don't hold that against him.

 

Although we've got the Avison sounding nice already, we're finding the Elgar a bit of a challenge. It has lots of sharps in the key signature and whilst the 2nd violins, viola and cello are dealing with some tricky syncopation, the first violins get a nice passage in seventh position. But are we daunted? No we are not! Give it a few weeks and we'll be sounding like the Boston Phil.

 

For our next trick we are planning a few Christmas songs to play around the tree at the Blaydon Christmas Tree Festival, and maybe we'll have a go at a sister piece to the Avison, since we found that one not too bad.

 

We are meeting on Mondays 7-8pm in Holy Trinity Church in Swalwell. Please come along if you want to join our orchestra! You can find details of this and all our ensembles here.

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Comments: 1
  • #1

    Anne Lindsley (Friday, 29 September 2017 22:39)

    It is so good to hear the news about the new Community orchestra. I do hope people read this blog and are then keen to join you. Keep it up, keep enjoying your music and please keep telling us about what you are doing.