Tuesday 22 February 2011

WE MADE IT!

4 Part vocal and 4 part instrumental.

Songs take some time to 'bed in' and this being our third week since starting ROW ON we were ready to learn the harmonies. The text comes from the diary of a 19th century whaling ship captain and the song, a beautiful, low melody with 3 very close harmonies gives the effect of strength and togetherness. Our high tenor led the low altos in a lovely part, the basses were led by a soprano singing low, two sopranos took the alto part and the other voices, alto and soprano, held the tune.

Now that's what I call adaptability! A good example of the strength of the group being greater than the sum of its parts, And what an enjoyable sing.

Similarly with Wolfgang's Canon, everyone played it well today and when we split into 4 parts there was that wonderful feeling that we could go on forever. After that there is always the opportunity to be creative with the music, to find ways of changing the timbre, increasing the tension, building up to a climax, before ending on a high, or beginning a gradual fade before the finish.
That's our challenge for next week - to decide on how to complete the piece.

Tuesday 15 February 2011



Irene suggests that maybe we should try this now we're getting somewhere with the xylophones !!

Monday 14 February 2011

Gordon and Carol wish all at Enjoy Music Happy St Valentines Day

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Tuesday 8 February 2011

YES WE LEARNED OUR MUSIC.

The Ducks and Swans breaking the  ice (Click to enlarge)

It did pay off, even for those who don't read music, that Wolfgang's canon could be accessed on the blog last week. Today we were a real ensemble (they called it a band) and played the canon first straight through all together, then in two, followed by three, parts. Wonderful to experience the almost mesmeric effect of playing the piece, time after time, fitting in with, but yet in beautiful contrast to, the other parts.
We also started an new song today called ROW ON from Ali Burns' compilation, TEN THOUSAND PEARLS  - all of this between catching glimpses of the ducks trying clumsily to make their way over the thin ice on the pond which caused frequent hilarity.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

HARMONY AND CANON

We started this morning to a track from the c.d. of Russian Dance Music compiled by the Russian/Dutch folklorist and dancer, Hennie Konings. The beautiful and remarkably open sounds of the singers inspired us to concentrate on singing gently with a relaxed and open throat. That focus led us into our version of Pachelbel's Canon which we sang in three part harmony and sounded specially good.
Next we sang the African song Banuwa with its rich harmonies.
Then we returned to I'LL FLY AWAY, remembering the three parts and enjoying how they fit well together.

After the coffee, with everyone on instruments, we learned this canon written by my good friend Wolfgang Hartmann. To begin with it's a great exercise to memorise the structure and shape of the melody, then it's good practice in crossing over the beaters and ultimately should be an effective and exciting sound played in canon with added percussion. That'll take some weeks but the process should be fun. I've copied the music here to give help with memorising, since you can't look at music while playing the xylophone!

Click to enlarge - then right click mouse below the music image to choose print