Bulletin 5

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Bulletin No 5, September 2005

Chairman's Report

Our audience at the Summer FALO were impressed by the standard of playing and how much better they could hear us in the new oblique arrangement. We had played a lot of interesting music during the term and started with the rousing drama of Weber's Der Freischütz overture under Steve, but we would have liked to play more than the first two movements of John's choice of Nielsen's less than familiar First symphony. Yet we were glad to include his marvellous tone painting of dawn in Mussorgsky's Khovantschina, and wasn't it appropriate to a summer show to try to breathe exotic airs in Albeniz's Andalucian Dances'!

Socially, we had a good turnout for skittles in Caversham, when old friends like Raymond and Leonora joined us, and again for the Garden Party at Darell Road, where Sue and I blessed the weather for showing the roses off so perfectly and everyone brought a good variety of offerings to the feast.

Now, fresh from summer holidays I hope, we have an interesting programme ahead (see below), both at Beansheaf and Ufton Court. I shall be most grateful for an early decision on your attendance at the latter, where we shall be welcoming some old friends back and have some lighter music too (any suggestions welcome). Meanwhile, in a couple of weeks, we shall be welcoming one new recruit, Kathleen Branch on cello, and Lorraine Snook hopes to return to us with her viola.

On a sad but realistic note after Dinny's handbag in the kitchen was rifled last term, may I remind everyone that if they arrive late, they should find the door locked.? If so, someone will come if the middle bell is pressed (marked Linear Hall).

Finally, considering the dates for the next season, note that in the summer term John Tims is offering a session before Easter that is open to all, not just strings, for the some of the wind have also felt the break too long. Some too may find that FALO is too late in June, with clashes with other concerts, holidays, and so on as has been our experience before. Meantime Lynne asks, what about another social at the Fox & Hounds on December 3^rd?

Winter Term - Sept 17, 24, Oct 1, 8, 22 (Oct 14-16 Ufton Court), Nov 5, 12 (AGM), 19, 26, Dec 3,10 (FALO)

Spring Term 2006 - Jan 7, 14, 21, 28, Feb4, 11, (Not 18^th), 25, Mar 4, 11, 18 (FALO) Summer Term - April 8 (optional), 15, 22, 29, May 6, 13, 20, Jun 3,10, 17, 24 (FALO)

The Treasurer told a full turnout of the committee of a satisfactory balance. Thanks to the conductors' generosity in giving their services free, we can continue to hire more modem and unusual music and keep the subscription at its present rate. He is to be congratulated on battling with the Alliance & Leicester for fair treatment when they offered new interest rates, yet seemed unable to pay them, until he enlisted the support of The Daily Telegraph's correspondent. She poured scorn on them and so gained us a handsome bonus for us as well as what they owed (and a well deserved Marks & Spencer's voucher for himself).

Mussorgsky was one of the five Russian nationalist composers. He was influenced by both folk music and literature. He died in poverty, from alcoholism. Many of his works were "revised' and orchestrated by others, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, and Shostakovich, and some have only recently been restored to their original harsh beauty. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is a musical tribute to the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann. In 1874 he selected 10 of Hartmann's most striking images and threaded them together into his own musical exhibition. His original work was in the form of a piano suite and was completed in less than 3 weeks. Mussorgsky's work was largely neglected until Ravel received the sum of 10,000 francs to orchestrate it. Other composers too completed their own orchestral versions of Mussorgsky's work, and these include Touschmaloff and Henry Wood. This term we shall be playing Touschmaloffs version.

"The Symphony", said Johannes Brahms "is not something one would trifle with these days". Brahms felt like many composers of his generation that Beethoven's 9^th symphony could not be surpassed. However at the age of 43 Brahms rose to the challenge and arrived at his own style in his First Symphony, a work of great originality. When Brahms' First Symphony eventually appeared, it was inevitably dubbed 'Beethoven's Tenth'. His Second was later compared to Beethoven's Pastorale and his Third Symphony was referred to as 'Brahms' Eroica'. Annoying though these descriptions were to Brahms, he was spurred on to greatness by the example of his predecessor and all his symphonies met with critical and public success. The Third in particular, written when he was fifty, was highly acclaimed. The first and final movements of Brahms's Third Symphony contain some of the most dramatic music he was to compose, yet both end serenely and enclose two beautiful inner movements.

The Strauss family were three generations of Viennese dance composers, most of them called Johann. They were hugely popular & very successful. As well as dances they wrote several operettas, of which Die Fledermaus (1847) is perhaps the best. The title "The Bat" refers to a disguise worn by the hero at a fancy dress ball. The overture is a "trailer" for the tunes in the show to follow, and it starts loudly - a standard technique of the time to stop the audience talking!

This piece is sometimes called Rimsky's Second Symphony but he himself preferred to call it a Symphonic Suite. First written in 1868 it was revised several times and published in its final form in 1897. Based on a fairy tale, it is highly programmatic. Antar, a legendary hero, has become disillusioned and fled to the desert, full of hatred of his fellow men. A huge bird appears, chasing a gazelle. Antar attacks the bird with a lance and frightens it away. He then falls asleep and dreams he is in a splendid palace, being entertained by beautiful female slaves. He soon realises that he is in the presence of the Queen of Palmyra, and it was she in the form of the gazelle he saved from the evil bird. In his dream the Queen promises Antar the three great joys of life; he awakens and finds himself once again in the desert, close by the ruins of Palmyra. The second and third movements deal with the joys of revenge and power, and the fourth dwells on the joys of love. Antar makes the Queen promise to take his life the moment she notices his passion for her cooling. It does, she does. He dies in her arms.

The intermezzo between Acts II and III of the opera Manon Lescault describes Manon's arrest and journey towards Le Havre and deportation to America. She is in love with a young student, but has become the mistress of a rich older man, and has stolen jewellery from him to finance her flight with the student. It is a fiery, passionate piece, which should suit the character of the Saturday Morning Orchestra.

Occasional piece: 'Air turned to stone' by Eleanor Tims (after 3 weeks in hospital) was included in this bulletin and can be found on the Individual members page

One member recently wondered what everyone would consider the aims and objectives of the orchestra. It appears to be such a 'mixed-ability' group. What do the better players get out of it? and why do most of them not apparently feel frustrated by the less good players? It would be interesting to know.

For my part, it is the sharing in a communal effort, a team game where there are no stars (as in my own past chosen sport of rowing), but everyone does their best and encourages the others. Certainly it is that mutual encouragement that is so precious to me, who has known the effect of sarcasm and being singled out and made an example of all too well. All teachers should know this, yet many sadly still do not.

But why labour so over music together at all? We are recreating a language of the emotions, and what a pleasure that can be! Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach wrote in his treatise on keyboard playing that 'if we would move others with our music, we must ourselves be moved by it.' We don't just play the notes, we try and imagine their effect, ideally before we play them. The neurology of the emotions may be seem mysterious, though increasingly understood, but we can all begin to understand how music makes its magic. So if you ever thought of finding 'a phrase book' to help you to understand it, I cannot recommend too highly the classic by Deryck Cooke: The Language of Music. First published in 1959, it is now available in OUP paperback.