October 2025 Playing Day

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: ​

​Now come, the Heathens' Saviour,
The Virgin's Son revered!
Let all the world be in awe,
God sent him such a birth)

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.

Several new players were recruited for our contrabass throughout the day. I (Claire) was put to shame by Mary in September, when a contrabass player was needed and I said no - so decided to make up for it this month. Then both Mark and Nigel had a tootle, and Nigel played it in our final piece.

'L' plate courtesy of Debbie Paton, who is willing to lend to anyone in need!

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