Pre-Concert/Tour rehearsal

"Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music
Any old way you choose it
It's got a back beat, you can't blues it
Any old time you use it
Gotta be rock 'n' roll music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me"

...this is not technically true. You can blues it if you want to. :)

Greetings, SUWO's Blog readers! It has been a while! But now that final exams are behind us and we have naught to do but agonise over how we've done, it's time to focus on SUWO happenings again. And not a moment too soon, because we have a concert tomorrow evening that requires us to be bright and cheery and ready to play our absolute bestest.

And of course there's also, y'know, TOUR!!!

Because the University of Sheffield examination board fails to realise that SUWO rehearsals are way more important than the availability of big halls in which exams can be taken, last night saw us rehearsing in St Andrew's church. While this did require us having to walk in the rain, without waterproof shoes on (for some) to a location some of us had not previously been to, the hall at least had the good grace to be able to fit us all in. Having no percussion may or may not have helped with that.

Pieces we practiced included:

-Toccata Marziale by R. Vaughn Williams

- Eligia by Wouter Lenaerts, with Gareth at the conducting station (and a piece well worth dedicating some small amount of time, in this young blogger's humble opinion. It is quite pretty)

- Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein, with George conducting (and showing just how mighty his conducting arm is with the speed he has to do it at the end)

- Horsefly by CY Payne (noteworthy both because of its amusing name, and because the sheet music is so small that the name of the piece suddenly makes perfect sense - it's horsefly size!

- Shepherd's Hey by Percy Very-Very-Ginger-Dary Grainger, conducted by equally Ginger-dary George.

- Colonial Song by Percy Just-As-Ginger-As-In-The-Previous-Line Grainger, again conducted by George

- Second Suite for Band by Alfred Reed

Some exciting pieces there, well worth the effort of coming and seeing performed. I have no photos nor videos today I am afraid. Instead what I can offer is our fabulous concert schedule for the next week (also visible on the colourful banner adorning the top of this page):

9th June at 8pm: Summer Festival Concert - Firth Hall, Sheffield

11th June at 8:15pm: Concert at St. Peter's Church, St Jan's Kerk, Maastricht

12th June at 3pm: Concert at Cathédrale des Saints-Michel-et-Gudule, Brussels

13th June at 4pm: Concert in what hopefully won't be the pouring rain at Monschau Market Place

14th June at 8pm: Concert at Eglise St Jacques, Liege

So, if you happen to be kicking around Sheffield, or random parts of Belgium and Holland, at some point next week, feel free to watch us. However, I do realise that for most this will not be a possibility. As such, I shall be making note of what goes on, taking photos and recording videos, and the next blog entry on here shall be an awe-inspiring monolith of literary fireworks, talking about anything and everything that happens.

Stay tuned!

Whit Fayre Performance

"Play that funky music white boy,

Play that funky music right."

Although you don't have to be white, or a boy, to play with SUWO. You just have to be able to improvise your way through pieces that haven't been rehearsed once this year.

Every year at around May/June (conveniently cutting into exam preparation time) SUWO plays for an hour in the bandstand at Weston Park. This year we had the most prestigious honour of doing it during the Whit Fayre. A prestigious honour mainly because we performed surrounded by people in Victorian-style dress walking around in stilts and playing croquet... and we can only wish they had been done together.

So after defying the laws of physics and getting over fifty SUWO members, their instruments (which, as a reminder, include tubas, large saxophones, and tonnes of percussion), chairs and music stands into the bandstand, and still somehow managing to leave enough room for Tony to do his required arm-flails without poking any of the higher woodwind instrumentalists in the eye, we started to play. Our repertoire included:

- Selections from Porgy and Bess by Gershwin; a piece that had been played many times in the SUWO days of yore (2008-2009) but had not been rehearsed at all this year. After finishing playing this piece we noticed that not many audience members were vacating their seats with vigour, or indeed at all. We like to believe that this was not because they had been super-glued to them.

- English Folk Songs by Tomlinson, movements 1, 2, and 3; which was performed well and proof of this would exist in video format if Tony had not looked disapprovingly into the camera, at a time when I admittedly should probably have been playing.

- Folk Song Suite by Vaughn Williams, movements 1 and 3; with Gareth, barely visible without the normal SUWO podium, doing the conducting, this was a fun couple of movements to play. The audience seemed to like it too.

No video this entry, I'm afraid, but there are photos!

 

The bandstand, with various SUWO members conglomerating to its left.

Some of the nearby festivities.

 

 As students of Sheffield, we know that a daytime event is not a daytime event if it is not performed under the block-shaped shadow of the Arts Tower.

Inside the bandstand. The test of a true musician - being able to play in such a small space.

Further pictoral evidence of the lack of space inside that bandstand.

Not sure when the next SUWO blog will be. But when it comes, I'm sure it will be extraordinary. :)

Week 12 Rehearsal

"Music makes the people come together,

Music mix the bourgeoisie and the rebel."

...yeah I don't get what that means either. But it's a quote with the word 'music' in it from a Madonna song now stuck deep in the head of this SUWO blog-artist.

So, after several weeks' hiatus due to Metropolis and the Music Ball, both of which were attended and enjoyed by many (I will assume, since some of us were as lacking in the 35 pounds necessary to attend the music ball at the time as they currently are in a laptop that has a pound sign key). 

There was a rehearsal in the midst of all of this, in Week 10. Allow me to summarise the happenings of that rehearsal now:

SUWO: tootle tootle honk honk bang bang
Tony: *flail flail flail, then* I'm going to sit these next few out. Gareth and George, you're up.
Gareth: Fabulous! *gets out especially pointy custom-made conductor's baton* *points*
SUWO: tootle tootle honk honk bang bang
Gareth: Unfortunately during my pointing escapades I've accidentally pointed myself a few times, so George, you're it.
George: Equally fabulous! *hops onto podium and gets out specially made extremely fast conductor's baton*
SUWO: O.o
George: So this piece, "Overture to Candide", is kind of brisk and has lots of fiddly bits, so we're going to start off slow to get you slowpokes warmed up for it.
SUWO: *collective sigh of relief*
George: So here we go. *...flailflailflailflailflailflailflail!!!*
SUWO: Oh sweet bejebus! *collective putting away of phones and picking up of instruments, because 50 bars rest is not going to last us long*
SUWO: tootletootlehonkhonkbangCLASH!!
George: wot.
Gareth (now in Percussion): Yeah it's just that when I have to change instruments it's a bit like this. *demonstrates hastily throwing down whatever piece of percussion at hand, running to the crash cymbals and crashing them before the speed of his instrument change causes him to fall over*
...and the rest.

And that brings us nicely to this week's rehearsal! With tour only being a few weeks away and most of us having exams right up until tour begins, the fates decided that now would be the perfect time to give SUWO a bunch of other concert commitments beforehand. On today's agenda: rehearsing for a bandstand concert at Weston Park on Sunday (from 3-4pm 100% free lots of great bands performing get there early to get good seats). 


These are some of the pieces that are going to sound slightly more recently rehearsed than the others.


- The Godfather Saga, by Nino Rota and Carmen Coppola, featuring some boss solo trumpet work by Ben Hoblyn


- Vintage, a piece for solo euphonium and the other members of a wind orchestra if they so choose, by David R. Gillingham and featuring Austin (Powers) Castaneda on eupho.


- Colonial Song by absolute legend incarnate (and he didn't even have to be Australian to be such a legend, although that certainly helped) Percy Aldridge Grainger, conducted by His Equally Gingeryness, George Mistoffelees Morton. 


- Concertante for Flute, Oboe and Band by Ignace Moscheles, arranged and conducted by one Mr Anthony Morton, and featuring the lovely duo of Hannah Lewin on oboe and David Bramall on flute.


And now for your viewing pleasure, I present photos and a video!

During the break.

A slightly more impressive view of the orchestra than I could have hoped to manage from my position. Taken by George.

The first twelve bars of Colonial Song. If this video works I'll be absolutely floored with amazement.

And that's all for this week folks! SUWO blog shall return soon!

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.