Metropolis!

I can hear music,

I can hear music,
The sound of the city baby seems to disappear,
I can hear music,
Sweet sweet music,
Whenever you touch me baby,
Whenever you're near.

Although here in SUWO, it's the music that touches us... and is near... us...

SO, there was not a SUWO rehearsal last night, which, as you can imagine, had many of us crying into our pillows and declaring our lives officially over and devoid of all meaning. However, we had barely managed to tug our bedtime upholstery towards us and ready our tear ducts before finding out that the reason why rehearsal was off this week was because of Metropolis.

When not busy being a really fun word to say, "Metropolis" is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction film written by Fritz Lang and Thea Von Harbou, and directed by Lang. It cost ridiculous amounts of money to make and was met with mixed reviews upon release. Due to its being 150 minutes long and containing footage that might give a very prudish person pause, large chunks of the film were cut out after its initial release, subsequently being lost to the mists of time. Many attempts were made to restore the film, until in 2008 a print of the original cut was found in a museum in Argentina. One rather arduous restoration process later, and the film was shown on screens in Berlin and Frankfurt on 12th February 2010. Praise be to Wikipedia for providing this background information, and here's a link to the article should you wish to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%28film%29

So, like other films at the time, Metropolis is supposed to be watched with a chap sitting at a piano providing the sound that equipment at the time was unable to capture. Evidently "chap sitting at a piano" was not grandiose enough for these people, so composer Gottfried Huppertz was recruited to write an original score for a full orchestra - a score that takes a total of 150 minutes to play, and has to be timed perfectly, lest the orchestra fall behind the movie while it's being shown. Not exactly the easiest of tasks. But for former SUWO president, up-and-coming conductor and wearer of shiny waistcoats extraordinaire George Morton, and various past and present obscenely musically talented students of the University of Sheffield, this task was a mere bag o' tell. "150 straight minutes of playing, in the dark, to a movie?" they seemed to say, "Please, present us with a challenge!"

And so, after what I will assume was much rehearsal behind the scenes, these talented individuals came together as one and performed this Mount Everest of a score last night. And it was spectacular. From the banging and clanging of machines by the percussion to the sweeping romantic interludes by the flutes and oboes to the quite hilarious (I thought) interlude of the French national anthem by the trumpets, the orchestra took this movie, and this score, and made it their own. The applause at the end was loud, thunderous, and slightly painful for those doing the applauding by the end. But sore arms were a small price to pay for what we had just seen.

For obvious reasons all involving either copyright or the inherent impoliteness of operating phone during a performance, I have no clips to share with you all this week, and nor do I know if any footage of the performance has been taken by someone slightly more official than me. If so I shall be sure to link to it in future, and if not, I shall close by saying that this was an amazing show, and one that I will certainly be remembering for a good while.

Until next week, adios!

Week 8 Rehearsal

"Music is like oxygen!"

Where 'music' is actually 'love', and the quote is stolen from Moulin Rouge.

Just a short update for now, SUWO's Blog readers. Last week was, in theory, our first tour rehearsal. We played a few different pieces, mostly stuff that we've played in previous years, such as Suite of English folk dances by Ernest Tomlinson (whose movements have such hilarious names as Jenny Pluck Pears, Dick's Maggot, and Hunt the Squirrel, and The Jungle Book by Sherman, Sherman and Gilkyson, arranged by Marcel Peters. We also tried a piece hilariously called Whirlegigg by Kenneth Hesketh, which was quite fun and jaunty, and played Colonial Song by that legend incarnate, Percy Grainger, conducted by that other legend incarnate, George M Marton (the M stands for Magestic).

That's all from SUWO blog for a few weeks while we all go on Easter break. But we'll be back after that for more news on our tour pieces, and more lovely photos and videos. Peace out, everyone. :)

Photos and Videos from Weekend Rehearsals Before Concert

"Play that funky music, white boy!"

Except in SUWO, you do not have to be white, nor does the music have to be funky.

Greetings, readers of SUWO's blog!

I do apologise for the delay in posting these photos and videos. However, I do assure you that, if you're at all interested in the inner workings of SUWO, that mysterious world of rehearsals that happens behind the closed doors of Firth Hall, then this is well worth the wait.

On with the photos!

a rather grand, centralised view of the orchestra as we set up.

same orchestra, same general setting-up hullabaloo that is customary at the beginning of rehearsal, slightly different angle.

the back of the orchestra, as discretely photographed from the noble position of Horn 4.

brass, playing in the chambers. Or at least, attempting to play. Some of the trombonists gave up and stood up in order to play over the awkward benches. Also notice our music stands, cunningly disguised as benches and book-holders.

Another angle. SUWO's greatest achievement to date: getting all of SUWO, plus most of the instruments, into this room, and not having to take out any awkward tables to do it.

...now for the videos, most of which are us playing various sections of Peter Graham's Windows of the World, and certain amateur filmers might have perhaps forgotten to film us playing other stuff.

Still, enjoy!

Certain select and prestigious members of SUWO and MUWO practising whirlers.

The introduction to the final movement of Windows of the World.

The start of the fourth movement of Windows of the World. This starts with the horns announcing their presence (as horns are wont to do), then the rest of the brass...responding, perhaps? Before filming this one of the trumpeters said "You're going to film us, aren't you?" Well... yeah.

The horn solo in the second movement of Windows of the World. Apologies for the back-of-head-view. Hopefully next year's writers will have seats in the orchestra that are more advantageous for getting photos and videos of everything.

Stay tuned for the next blog post, where we start practising for our amazing tour to Amsterdam!

A weekend of fabulous SUWO-ness, one whirler at a time!

"So I say thank you for the music,

The songs I'm singing,

Thanks for all the joy they're bringing,

Who could live without it,

I ask in all honesty,

What would life be,

Without a song or a dance what are we?

So I say thank you for the music,

For giving it to me."

Because when you think "SUWO", you think "ABBA". :)

What a weekend this was! From 9:45 on Saturday morning until 10pm on Sunday night, it pretty much straight SUWO from top to bottom, on all sides. The result? A fabulous weekend with our MUWO brethren, a humongously humongous audience, the likes of which SUWO does not often see, and, of course, a fantastic concert.

So we all arrived at Firth Hall between 9:45 and 10:30 on Saturday morning, grumbling about how early we had been ordered to rise from our student-status-induced weekend morning slumbers, only to have to promptly cease our complaints around the poor MUWO blighters, who had had to catch a train at an even more obscene hour. We instead busied ourselves with welcoming the MUWOers, shaking hands, working out seating, apologising in advance for any confusion our chosen pieces might cause, etc. The rest of the morning was then spent practising our two joint pieces, Tails aus dem Vood Viennoise by Bill Conner and Windows of the World by Peter Graham (a piece SUWO played last semester for our Global Variations concert). Now, these pieces sounded pretty good when it was just SUWO playing them, if I do say so myself. But the extra talent MUWO brought in turned these pieces from 'pretty good' to 'freakin' AMAZING!' Everything, from the lovely horn solo in the second movement of Windows of the World, to the faultless whirler work during movement 3 of Tails aus dem Vood Viennoise, was fabulous. And if you don't believe me, well... you should have come to the concert.

The afternoon was spent working on various SUWO pieces - just a bit of a tidy-up for tomorrow. Then rehearsal was over, and the festivities of the night (featuring a Pop Tarts night) commenced. You would be reading more about this evening on here, but sadly this author was unable to go, and will now spare a second or two of typing to encourage others who would like to contribute to this blog to tell all.

...pleeeeaseeee??? :):):)

Sunday rehearsals were short and sweet - a run-through of the program, essentially, before we all ran home to change into our concert blacks. We then assembled in the back rooms of the Firth Hall, like the Power Rangers but with less helmets and martial arts skills, and more black slacks and weapons of mass musicalisation. One pep talk from Tony later and we were on stage, gazing at awe at the sheer size of our audience and surely wondering what lucky star SUWO was born under to have gained two such incredible PR officers for 2011-2012. Lesser mortals would have been paralysed with fear at having to play in front of such a large number of people, but SUWO and MUWO are made of stronger stuff than that.

So, highlights of the concert?

- The squeaking noise one of the percussion instruments was clever enough to make, completely unprompted by any percussionist, during the first few movements of Windows of the World.

- "KUUUUUUUM WAMBO! WAAAAAAAAA!!!" - as shouted by the trumpeters and lower brass in movement 4 of Windows of the World.

- Listening to the ridiculously talented Linda Merrick playing the solo clarinet parts of "Burn" by Peter Meecham

- Tony gazing at the audience in utter confusion as he tried to locate The Most Prestigious Honourable And Now Former President George M. Morton, and Mr. Morton being halfway towards the stage before Mr. Houghton found him.

- Whirlers: the instruments of the hour. 'Nuff said.

Stay tuned, for in the next few days, many photos and videos shall be posted.

Week 6 Rehearsal

"But when the night is falling
You cannot find the light (light)
If you feel your dreams are dying
Hold tight
You've got the music in you"

...yeah, I am pretty much just quoting things I know about that have the word "music" in them now. :)

So last week's rehearsal was, like all of them, fabulous. Our concert is on Sunday, meaning we have three more rehearsals (this Thursday, then on Saturday and Sunday) before our concert. Oooooohhhh... Included in the weekend schedule is time specifically devoted to "whirler practice". This is going to be fun...

Anyway, last week (as it is now. Sorry for the delay in posting this) started with a run-through of Overture for the Mayors of Barton by Anthony Hedges. This piece is quite jaunty and fun, and becomes very grandiose towards the end. What else can I say about it? It's an overture, it sounds like an overture, and it's very nice indeed. But you're not going to know about it unless you come to the concert, are you?

Next, we spent a fair amount of time perfecting A Soliloquy for Solferino by Martin Ellerby. This week's video is of the beginning of this song, and features the lovely and exceptionally talented Hannah Lewin on solo oboe. This piece is haunting and atmospheric. According to that bringer of all knowledge, Mr Tony Houghton, Martin Ellerby will be in the audience on Sunday evening, and this will be the second time this piece has been performed and the first time the composer will be hearing the piece played. He would have heard the first performance, but it is apparently happening somewhere in America and he couldn't afford to fly across the Atlantic to hear it. The pressure is therefore on to make this performance good, and I would say that it is well within SUWO's ability to do that. Are there any doubters among readers of this blog? Well, doubter or not, you'll have to come to the concert to see how we do.

After our break we did what I like to call a critical run-through (going through a whole movement/the whole piece, then picking up on problem areas and working through them a few times) of Folk Song Suite, written by His Royal Presidential Highness, Mr George Morton, esq. I will not tell a lie here - this is probably my favourite piece out of our entire program, and I am not just saying that because my fellow blog contributor here wrote it.

This piece begins with movement I. River Sheaf, which is happy and bright, sort of dance-y (as you can see, with my advanced skills at reviewing songs I have national newspapers pounding on my door every day requesting my expertise), then slows towards the end for the next movement, II. Manor Lodge. The piece then speeds up again in movement III. A Sheffield Apprentice, which I won't say much about, except that the ending is epic enough to include Bells Up for us horn players. It's a fabulous piece, in conclusion, and it's well worth coming to the concert on Sunday to hear. George Morton is a talented composer, that's for sure.

We ended things with movement I. Cemetary, of Tails aus dem Vood Viennoise by Bill Conner. After staring blankly for a few minutes at the auto-corrected notes about this piece on my phone, which say "Does legitimately spud likecone", I have come to the conclusion that what I was trying to type was "Does legitimately sound like one", which it does. There is a lot of dramatic build-up, which then leads to the following movements. Again, not wanting to say much, but it is another excellent, suspenseful, well-written piece.

If I have not yet managed to convince you that Firth Hall is where you're meant to be on Sunday evening, perhaps this photo and video will help to tempt you:

Just one photo this week, but it's a fairly all-inclusive one! I might manage a photo of some people on the clarinet side of the orchestra next time, with a little bit of luck!

Tootle tootle! Listen out for the oboe solo, both here and on Sunday.

Well, that's all for me from this week. Stay tuned for more updates!

Week 5 Rehearsal

"Did you ever stop to think,

When the band plays 'rink-a-tink',

Where all the music comes from?

From a toot, and a whistle, and a plunk, and a boom."

Of course, we manage just fine without the 'plunk' in SUWO.

So, Week 5! Yet another fantabulous rehearsal. With just two more Thursday rehearsals before our big concert, you would hope that we were making progress by now, and that certainly seems to be happening with us.

We kicked things off with Overture for the Mayors of Barton by Anthony Hedges and then worked on a few tricky sections of A Soliloquy for Solferino by Martin Ellerby, before engaging in one of the two main highlights of the evening: A rehearsal of Peter Meechan's magnificently atmospheric piece, Burn, with solo clarinetist Linda Merrick.

As with many of these solo pieces, Burn is the sort of arrangement where listening to the clarinet is key. The clarinet forms the lyrical basis, the essential beauty of the piece, while the rest of the orchestra provides the shading and colouring that makes the clarinet sing out that much more. It was a joy to watch Linda making musical magic earlier this evening, and even more of a joy to play with her. She said she was happy with us afterwards, which is obviously good to know.

Before break we talked briefly about the AGM, which stands for some doubtlessly practical title and refers to a meeting whereby the new SUWO committee are chosen. Those of us lucky enough to have been in the committee this year said a bit about our current roles, and with a bit of luck a lot of the current first years will be eager to fill the roles. Although they have some pretty big shoes to fill. Whoever our two new PR reps are will have their work cut out for them in particular, considering the two spectacular specimens of human who have been taking care of that job this year...

*ahem* anyway. Gareth Widdowson took to the conducting podium, and after receiving a condescending pat on the head from someone taller than Gareth and the podium combined, took us through Ides March by Derek Bermel. Tony then resumed his place and we worked again on Tales Aus Dem Vood Viennoise by Bill Conner, this time looking at the third movement, entitled Just Retribution.

And here marks the second highlight of the evening, as this piece requires the use of plastic bendy tubes that generate noise when spun around. These tubes are, quite appropriately, dubbed 'whirlers', and they sound a bit like voices. The combination of these somewhat unfortunately-shaped and therefore unendingly hilarious instruments, combined with George Morton possibly taking on more than he had bargained for in assuming the 2nd Tuba chair, made for what might just be one of the funniest rehearsals of a piece SUWO has experienced in quite some time.

Enough of me nattering on, I think. Photos!

Fairly epic shot of the orchestra, minus horns, a couple of trumpets, and perhaps a percussionist or two somewhere to the left of the picture.

This is what Gareth looks like, standing on a podium. It's fairly similar to how he looks when he's not standing on a podium. Except the rest of the time there's... no... podium...

Because whirlers are far more important than trumpets or horns in this piece, we had a few non-percussionists subbing in when the percussionists' arms got tired.

And lastly, a video of the beginning of Just Retribution. You might have to turn up the volume on your computers to hear this one. One might argue that the whirlers look a bit silly, but we would like to counter-argue that by saying 1) the sound they produce is very effective, and 2) when you're a member of SUWO, looking silly is a factor that does not matter in the slightest.

Also pay attention to the flutes, who are exhibiting double amounts of awesome here by playing a long, low (and therefore quite difficult, because low notes and flutes aren't exactly two concepts that go hand in hand) note, and voicing a whirler-ish sound at the same time. Tricky, tricky stuff.

Thats all from me this week! Stay tuned for another post, with photos and videos a-plenty, next week!

Note: Apologies for the video from the Rehearsals 1 and 2 post not working. The settings on Youtube were wrong. It should all be fixed now.

Week 4 Rehearsal

"Help me make the music of the night."

... if by 'night' you mean 'epically awesome SUWO/MUWO concert on the 25th tickets 3 pounds for students', and by 'music' you mean... well, 'music'.

We had a good rehearsal this week! Well, we have a good rehearsal every week, but this was a good 'un regardless. We practised Overture for the Mayors of Barton by Anthony Hedges; River Sheaf, the first movement of George Morton's Folk Song Suite; Burn by Peter Meechan (practising it for the first time this week); and Dawn Assault, the second movement of Tails Aus Dem Vood Viennoise by Bill Conner.

Pictures!

Tony telling us to do something. Us, presumably, listening to him.

More of us, presumably, listening to Tony, instruments held bravely in front of them, like deadly weapons for attack.

Some horns, some trumpets, and an organ.

And finally, I present a video of us performing part of River Sheaf. Enjoy, and I'm sorry for the sub-standard audio quality.

Tune in next week, where very similar stuff will probably be said, but there will be a new practise video or two, and maybe even a frontways photo of the orchestra!