We were a relatively small group in July - only about 16 or 17 of us, some of whom left at lunchtime (apologies to them; I only got my camera out in the afternoon).

It has been arranged that we are to give a small concert in November, as a thank you to Trecastle residents for letting us use the hall, and so that they can see what we do! So Caroline focussed this session on possible pieces for the concert - interesting but not too challenging :)

The list comprises:

• 'Variations on 'A Chantar'' by Steve Marshall
• 'Calon Lan' arranged by Alyson Lewin
• 'Fantasy Sextet' by William Byrd
• 'Caprice' by Marg Hall

We also tried a piece from Alyson Lewin's 'Three Welsh Portraits' which is a definite possible for adding in September.

Those present who are also intending to play in the concert were encouraged to take their parts home to practice over the summer! But if you weren't there, don't worry - there will be other opportunities to join in at the September and October meetings with plenty of time to practice before November.

Mirjam also conducted her arrangement of 'O Radiant Dawn' for lower instruments (tenor down to contrabass), which was lovely. And a big thank you to Mirjam for taking over when Caroline's conducting arm needed a rest, and taking us through the Caprice.

Thank you as usual to Mary for organising tea & coffee, and Helen for providing cake. We are starting to acquire a cake habit I think!

Our June Playing Day was conducted (the whole day!) by Lesley Chapman, who some may remember, came for a half day last year. We had a really good attendance, with a group of 5 players from Newport joining us for the first time (welcome to Liz, Sue and the others whose names I can't remembr)  and many of our regulars.

Lesley has a different approach to our usual seating arrangement, with tenors to her left, trebles to her right, and descants and basses sitting in the centre. It means that we can all hear the bass players, which - as they are often the backbone of the music - is great idea.

She had prepared a good selection of music, and pitched it just about right for the majority of players. Sadly I had to leave at lunchtime, but I really enjoyed the morning's playing, especially when we moved around to play next to someone playing another part. It was lovely to be immersed in the music.

Here is the list of pieces, in the order we played them:

• William Byrd (arr. Helen Hooker): The Earle of Salisbury's Pavane and Galliard
• Clive Lane: Air (for recorder quintet)
• Jay Ungar: Ashokan Farewell (from 'The Civil War' film)
• David Moses: Bolivian Bolero
• Antonio Lotti (arr. Helen Hooker): Salve Regina
• Marg Hall: Chief O'Neill's Favourite and other great Irish Tunes
• Muff Lucas: Sleepytime Rag
• William Damen (arr. Helen Hooker): O Lord How Joyful is the King
• Geoffry Russell-Smith: Moments of Delight (for six recorders)
• Marg Hall: Blue Spectrum

Thank you so much to Lesley for an excellent playing day. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. And we hope to see some of the new players back again next month! Remember it will be our last session before the summer break during August.

On yet another lovely spring day (why does the sun always shine when we're inside playing!) 17 of us gathered ready for a day of companionable playing. Trina was conducting for the morning and early part of the afternoon.
We started with some Trina's arrangements of pieces from Purcell's Dido & Aeneas - sadly not the famous and beautiful Lament (though Trina promised Bettina that one day she would arrange that too!). They were lovely arrangements, and we especially enjoyed the challenge of 'In our Deep Vaulted Cell', where we needed to keep the volume down for the echoes (this was remarkably effective, and if we went flat, that just added to the effect).
After a short coffee break, we played an arrangement of some Haydn Fugues originally written for string quartet. With a time signature of 'cut time', the beat is 2 minims in a bar, but Trina was kind to us and beat 4 crotchets, to start with anyway! She also explained that the slur marks indicate bowing for a stringed instrument and need to be played legato (unlike the Purcell we had just played, where similar marks indicate phrasing). It certainly sounded much better when we all played the slurs as intended. We played through the 'Fugue on Two Subjects' (Oriel OL152) and had a look at the 'Fugue on Four Subjects' but decided to leave that for another day.
Trina then handed out Raymond Harvey's 'Variations on "The Flat Pavan" by John Johnson' which had been played by the branch some time ago, but maybe not by anyone present today. We made a start on the first couple of variations and then it was time for lunch.
After lunch (which was another al fresco affair, though a bit chillier than last month), we continued with the Raymond Ahrvey Variations until Delyth arrived. They were fun - a good variety of speeds, time and key signatures to keep us on our toes.
Delyth then arrived to pick up the baton, and we all thanked Trina, who sadly couldn't stay on to play. Delyth had one piece for us, but it was a good one: J.S. Bach 'Jesu Meine Freude' BWV 227, arranged in 5 parts by Alex Ayre (CRCS 321 if anyone would like to give it a try). It consisted of 5 verses and 6 chorales, and took up the rest of the afternoon. In fact, we were so immersed in it that we neglected to take the usual afternoon tea break!
We finished around 4.30, and everyone agreed that it had been an excellent day. Thank you so much to Trina and Delyth for their conducting; Mary for bringing the tea and biscuits - and everyone else for their enthusiasm and company.

On a beautiful spring day – which happened to coincide with Early Music Day, March 21st – we welcomed Alyson Lewin for our Visiting Conductor playing day. 25 players from as far afield as Cardigan Bay and Bridgend gathered in Trecastle, with instruments including our new Subgreatbass, 2 contrabasses and several great basses.
Alyson started us off gently with her arrangement of a traditional Welsh melody, ‘The Wild White Rose’. Although the score includes dynamics, Alyson explained that we individually only need to use very subtle changes as the dynamics of the piece are built into the scoring. The arrangement originally included a section with the option of singing whilst playing, which some people tried, but the jury was out on whether we liked it better with or without.
Our next piece was by the Renaissance composer Osbert Parsley. ‘Parsley’s Clock’ (or ‘Ut re mi fa sol la upon the dial’) features a simple tenor line with the melody – an ascending scale of 6 long notes, followed by descending notes back to the tonic. Alyson pictured for us a clock face with the hour hand starting at 6, rising to 12 and descending back to 6.
Lunch time gave us the opportunity of enjoying the sun, or browsing the many boxes of music which Alyson had brought.
Refreshed, we tackled some unbarred music under Alyson’s expert guidance, with a couple of simple pieces followed by Byrd’s ‘Ave Verum Corpus’. We learnt the value of reading the words alongside playing the notes, to give insight into the phrasing and hence where to breath. It made a huge difference to the feel of the pieces when we all did this.
Finally we split into 2 ‘choirs’ for Gabrieli’s ’Canzon Septimi Toni’, the most challenging piece of the day with some tricky time changes that Alyson made look so simple!
A thoroughly enjoyable day. Huge thanks to Alyson, and to those members who provided homemade biscuits, cake and bara brith!

We got off to a slow start as everyone was catching up after our 2 month break, and welcoming 2 new players Judith and Rachel. Eventually Caroline called us to order and we started with Marg Hall's Caprice, which we'd tried at our last meeting in November. The descant part in particular proved tricky, with a lot of high notes. The piece is in 3 movements and great fun to play, though the jury (Caroline) is out about whether we can get it up to speed to play for an audience!
Those who wished took parts home to practice.
After a coffee break, Caroline continued with the Sinfonia 'La Bergamasca' by Ludovico Grossi da Viadana. This is a 2-choir dance piece, and we needed to keep the articulation light and bouncy ('chiffy'). After a bit of practice, the 2 choirs stood at opposite ends of the room with Caroline conducting from the middle - quite a challenge!
After a lunch break, Caroline continued with Palestrina's 'Tu es Petrus: Prima pars' which improved greatly when 2 players moved from higher to lower instruments and boosted the bass. I must admit, I really enjoyed being in the bass team.
We had a quick coffee and then Mirjam took over the conducting. She has been working on recorder arrangements of some of James MacMillan's pieces from The Strathclyde Motets (choral music from the 20th century), and wanted to try them out. We started with 'Benedicimus Deum Caeli' which sounded beautiful (nice work Mirjam). We then made a start on 'Lux Aeterna', but the more complicated rhythms (descants playing minim triplets in 4/4 time) proved a step too far for this time of day. It was suggested we start with this another time.
Anyway it was 4.25, so time to be packing up - and the next group to use the hall needed to set up for their Eisteddfod - so we said our goodbyes.
Thanks to Caroline and Mirjam for conducting the day - and welcome to our new players. we hope to see you again.

11 of us started the day gently with the usual cuppa and chat. Then Caroline took charge and split us into 2 for our first piece - 'Nu Komm der Heyden Heyland', by Samuel Scheidt. This is a 2-choir piece in 4/2 time so challenged some of us right from the beginning, playing (and counting) one to a part.

(Mirjam translated this as: ​

This was followed by a coffee break and the Branch AGM (for which minutes will circulated to members in due course).
The AGM finished around 12.10 leaving just enough time to tackle our next piece before lunch, an arrangement by Mirjam of Peter Maxwell-Davies' 'Farewell to Stromness'. Some tricky rhythms in the bass part, for which Mirjam rightly blamed the original composer. It was a lovely piece, and nicely arranged :)
After lunch, Caroline handed out a double-sided sheet of music, with the Kyrie Eleison from Bach's B minor mass on one side, and an unbarred piece by Palestrina on the other. Bettina liked the look of the Palestrina but was outvoted (though we did have a chaotic attempt at the Palestrina later on). The Bach was beautiful however, and we managed a fairly good rendition after a bit of practice.
After a short coffee break, we ended with the 'Caprice' for Recorder Orchestra by Marg Hall - a lively first movement, and beautiful slow second.

Thanks to Caroline for conducting the whole day. We need that conducting workshop to recruit some new volunteers!

We started the new SRP year year with a relatively quiet meeting, around a dozen players. In this 500th anniversary year of the birth of Palestrina, Delyth started us off with a couple of pieces by that composer, ‘Tu es Petrus’ arranged for 6 parts by Alex Ayre, and ‘Sicut cervus’. Trina followed with a set of pieces by Walter Bergmann, ‘Accent on Rhythm’ in which the rhythms gradually became more complex as we progressed through the set. We did reach the final one, with a lot of tips from Trina!
After lunch Delyth took us back to the Renaissance with a piece by William Byrd, ‘Fantazia a 4’. We ended with piece by a composer who died 400 years ago this year, Orlando Gibbons: another arrangement by Alex Ayre of ‘What is our life?’