I started running a "late starters' orchestra" for Newbury College (NCLSO) in 1995 and moved from there in September 2003 to set up DA CAPO (Do All Come and Play Orchestra) as an independent orchestra on a different evening and in a different venue but with the same aims. Much of the information about music which follows relates to what I chose and conducted with NCLSO.
When the orchestra started in 1995, its first music was a set of simple rounds, soon followed by a Renaissance dance and a very straightforward Bach Chorale. While the total numbers in the orchestra were relatively low I spent the first evening of the autumn term working separately with newcomers and any returning members who were still not confident enough to play chamber music. The more experienced returners were organised into small groups to play chamber music with professional coaching. With increasing numbers that became more difficult to organise, and from September 2008 I provided some simple music and introduced new players to the basics of playing in a conducted group within the full orchestra.
When the orchestra first started we didn't play to an audience for a couple of terms, but performing even quite informally is different from rehearsing, and needs practising in its own right for people to become comfortable with it. We now have a performance event at the end of each term, welcoming "friendly eavesdroppers" to listen to a programme of orchestral items, solos and chamber music. We usually play all the orchestral music we have worked on during the term. Current members of the orchestra and usually some ex-members also contribute items of their own choice, not necessarily on the instruments they play every week. Some events have included songs and poems.
These evenings have given first-ever opportunities to a number of orchestra members to play a solo to an audience - always a very supportive one consisting mainly of friends and families of the players.
For several years now a group of players, current and ex-members of the orchestra, has been out during December playing seasonal music at a local supermarkets, helping to raise money for Cancer Research UK. The "busking pack" now has nearly twenty short items including a varied selection of traditional Christmas carols, a transcription of a short 8-part Christmas motet by Mendelssohn Frohlocket ihr Völker auf Erde, Jingle Bells and one or two other secular items including the traditional Here we come a-wassailing.
For seven successive years we were able to arrange joint events with Newbury College Singers, a day-time class conducted by Ian Westley, including items by choir and orchestra individually and one or two combined items. Sadly it became more and more difficult to find a Saturday when both conductors were free, and with numbers high in both groups we would have more difficulty finding a suitable venue than before. Perhaps we shall be able to organise something again in the future.
At our event in December 2003, for the second time in the orchestra's history we gave the World Première of a piece specially written for us, this time by J. L. Moore (daughter of Patsy), who has always taken an interest in the orchestra, and came to hear it in rehearsal earlier in the year before starting to write. Her new piece called Fairground was much enjoyed.
In July 2004, the programme included not one but two World Premières! The first was a short duet for flute and bassoon by the orchestra's current bassoon player, Terence Sheppey, and the second was an orchestral piece called Watch. This was written for the orchestra by K. C. Moore (husband of Patsy) who as well as having taken an interest in the orchestra from its inception spent one term playing bassoon with it. The piece is intended to be one of a set called Timepieces, not yet completed. Watch presented a number of musical challenges for the players as it was in an unfamiliar idiom, with lots of time changes and quite complicated "geography", but they worked very hard and were able to give a convincing performance of it.
Since September 1995 the music the orchestra has played has included pieces by (among others) Gregor Aichinger, Leroy Anderson, Anon, J. S. Bach, Judith Bailey, Bartók, Mike Batt, Beethoven, Couperin, Dvorak, Elgar, Fauré, Frescobaldi, Franck, Giovanni Gabrieli, Leopoldo Gasman, Gershwin, Gussago, Ronald Hanmer, Hassler, Haussmann, Haydn, Derek Hobbs, Holst, Robert Howard, Andy Jackson, Janacek, Claude Le Jeune, MacDowell, Mendelssohn, J. L. Moore, K. C. Moore, Moussorgsky, Mozart, Georg Muffat, Adolf Müller Jnr, Palestrina, Michael Praetorius, Purcell, Michael Rose, Schubert, Martin Shaw, Terence Sheppey, Howard Skempton, Stanford, Sullivan, Gavin Sutherland, Alan Taylor, Eric Thiman, Spiro Trepka (who he? No idea! If you know, do tell!), Vaughan Williams, Orazio Vecchi, Peter Warlock, Antoine Wranizky... The list is growing all the time, and I try to include music in different styles and from different periods each term.
Quite a few members of the orchestra have now moved on to local groups which demand greater technical skill, but my aim is to offer a progressive musical experience within the orchestra for all its members.
There are now several chamber music groups meeting independently on a more or less regular basis as a result of the players meeting at the orchestra. I really like the idea that it's functioning as a musical match-making agency! Playing chamber music with friends is one of the most satisfying activities that life offers to the musician at any level, and I'm delighted to see people developing the confidence to enjoy it.
What next? Come and see for yourself! If you are already playing an appropriate instrument you are welcome to come to one of our regular rehearsals, but do get in touch beforehand so that there will be appropriate music ready to enable you to join in. If the orchestra grows much more (this term there are 43 players) we may have to find a bigger venue for our rehearsals, so prior contact is doubly necessary!
Patsy Moore, February 2008
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