April 2025 Playing Day

Just under 20 people elected to stay indoors and play recorders on this beautiful spring day (although a few left after the morning session).

Caroline started us off with a run through the pieces for the Tudor & Stuart Dance Workshop in May. There was much discussion about what would happen about repeating sections, and how fast we should play to accommodate the dancers. Delyth and Julie gave us a quick demonstration of some dance steps to get an idea of speed. Regarding repeats though, it was concluded that we'd just have to wait and see how things work out on the day. So, note for the day: be prepared to be flexible, watch Caroline and DON'T SLOW DOWN AT THE END!

After a tea break, Mirjam conducted us in a Concerto Grosso by Corelli (Op 6 No 3) arranged by Moira Usher. Deceptively simple, Mirjam explained how this lovely piece relies on good articulation and precise timing, and managed to get us playing reasonably together by lunchtime!

In the afternoon, Trina kicked us off with 'The Lord Zouche's Maske' by Giles Farnaby, arranged by Paul Clark. This piece has some quite fast passages in all parts, although mostly scalic. After an inital play through, where most of us blanched at the sight of all the semi-quavers and gave up, she took individual parts through their fast passages, demostrating there was nothing to be scared of, and by the end we were mostly coping!

Trina followed this with an arrangement of 'Red Rose Rag' by Percy Wenrich  which was fun.
Delyth continued with another ragtime piece from the same collection, and then handed out a 2-choir piece to finish the day: 'Hor che la nuova e vaga primavera' by Roland de Lassus. Unfortunately we had to be out of the hall promptly as another group needed to set up for the next event, so only had time to play this piece through quickly. It deserves another try when we have more time.

As always, thank you to all the conductors for the day: Caroline, Mirjam, Trina and Delyth - and a special thank you to Delyth for demonstrating  some dance steps for us!