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Honorary advisor
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Sorry I missed this one. I just saw the North Valley Symphony Orchestra from the Phoenix area perform "The Planets". I loved it. They had a big screen above the orchestra showing many pictures of the planets and their moons. I haven't had a chance to listen to the recording. I look forward to that next time I log in here.
Duane
"Violin is one of the joys of my life."
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Fiddlerman said
With your concertmaster's hat on, Pierre, and bearing in mind that all the violins are expected to bow in the same direction for visual effect, what is your view on the visual effect of the cellists' rocking from side to side like that? I've never noticed it before, but it may be that I wasn't observant enough. I find it very distracting. I apologise for my 500th post being so nit-picky!
Andrew
Not specifically violin related - but connected to the topic - The original Broadwood piano as used by Holst when composing the Planets Suite has been restored by its makers, Broadwood, and is to be played in a special performance. There was some good coverage on the BBC of the restoration, but sadly, not a lot to be found on the internet other than occasional details -
https://www.yorkmix.com/event/.....own-piano/
Unfortunately the performance is tomorrow, June 14, so it's a bit late for me to start making travel arrangements, but with tickets in range from UK Sterling £3 to £10 - what's not to like ?
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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Fun fact: "Thaxted" is a small town in Essex, England where Holst lived in the early twentieth century.
I have fond memories of Thaxted. My father lived there in the 1970s, and I spent my summer holidays there as a schoolboy in the little end-of-terrace house house just down the hill from the church. No two walls / floors met at 90 degrees. Gustav Holst lived in The Manse, a big town-house on the main street.
Peter
"It is vain to do with more that which can be done with less" - William of Ockham
"A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in" - Frederick the Great
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cid - you caught my attn. I thought this was to be our new project... then I saw the date.
This is one of my favorites, next to Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights! I certainly wouldn't mind learning either one for a project.
Peter - thank you for your recollection of Thaxted!
I enjoy episodes of "Escape to the Country", but haven't seen Thaxted. Nice place!
- Emily
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Wow, what a lovely video! It brought back some wonderful memories. Thank you, Emily. England is a small place - fun fact (2) - I have a great-grandfather who shares a graveyard with John Ireland (Shipley, Sussex).
"Dance of the Knights" is a great tune; very imposing. We'd need someone with an electric bass or cello with a fuzz box to give a just rendition of the deep brass parts (French horns?).
We could also go for something up-tempo like Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance", with fast pizz to cover the percussion (I think it's a glockenspiel originally?). A bit ambitious, that one.
Anywayup, welcome to the foremost fiddle forum, Emily.
Peter
"It is vain to do with more that which can be done with less" - William of Ockham
"A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in" - Frederick the Great
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Emily,
Thank you for this video. I've always loved The Planets, especially Mars and Jupiter, but I never realized that Thaxted was really a place
A beautiful village, much like many of which I enjoyed visiting when I traveled from London to Edinburgh back around 1975. There aren't many places like that here, especially in Texas where I now live.
Nice to have something to smile about.
Bob in Lone Oak, Texas
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Funny that this thread pops up now. If not for the pandemic, I would have been playing The Planets last weekend with the Camellia Symphony. It's been rescheduled to June 5, 2021.
Hmm, Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights and Khachaturian's Sabre Dance both seem hard to arrange for an inclusive group. But another thought that would be a lot more suitable: Sibelius's Finlandia hymn? (I'm still trying to think of more up-tempo selections from the classical repertoire that would be suitable for arranging. Maybe the first movement of Holst's St. Paul's Suite? I'll probably come up with more ideas when I'm not completely exhausted as I am right at this moment.)
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Yeah - why not re-visit the same project - hugely popular piece, known and heard by many outside-of formal classical music aficionados.... It is played and heard in so many different circumstances, from being a solemn hymn tune, a sombre acknowledgement to those who have given-for-others, and indeed to a rousing victory-song. Yup, great 90 seconds-worth excerpt from the suite...
If I recall correctly, that was the 2014 project, same year I took up the fiddle a few months earlier.
I found the flat key awkward ( not because I'm afraid of flat keys ROFL !!!! The fingering is straight forward, it's just another key with the same "interval-rules" ) but because I was only in first position and at the time, my left hand hold, close to the nut, gave me issues getting to the first half-step up... ( yup, I had JUST about reached the stage of believing, "No, it's OK, you WON'T drop the instrument.. ROFL ).
Not a problem now though (dropped it many times - JUST KIDDING !!!), all good !
I return to playing the piece regularly, and especially as a solo performance, it has a vast range of opportunities for bringing personalised expression and dynamics into it...
I love it !
@Fiddlerman - You have my vote for a return to the same piece - and I can imagine, there is scope for additional parts.... hmmm... even better....
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
Jim Dunleavy said
Before I realised this was an old thread I'd already downloaded the parts and the clicktrack. lolSo I'd definitely be up for rerun.
ROFL sir, @Jim Dunleavy !
THAT sounds like a second vote for a re-run !!! Good man !
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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