Line drawing

Line drawing
Drawn by the talented Luke Braddock

Monday 10 September 2012

2012-2013 Welcome!


Greetings, SUWO! *blows dust off Resident Blogger chair and takes a seat*

Welcome to 2012-2013! Gillian here, and I will be resuming my post as the faithful maintainer of the SUWO blog this year. To all new potential SUWO members who have not met me yet, I have been in SUWO since 2008 and am one of the PR Representatives. You'll recognise me by my Australian accent, the never-ending stream of missed notes and facepalms made by me in the Horn section, and, if you still don't know me by the next European tour, the wave of jeers and faux-sympathetic pats bestowed upon me while waiting at UK passport control.

The purpose of this post is to welcome everybody who is keen to audition for SUWO. I thought I would take a moment before the auditions to say a bit about us; who are we, what we do during the year, how serious we are as an orchestra, and what is the record for number of audible groans by a frustrated member during a rehearsal.

As you have hopefully read on our Union and Facebook page, SUWO is a wind orchestra comprised of both Music and non-Music students, past and present, throughout the university. Lead by our fearless leader, Sir Anthony Houghton esq., we are about to commence our 12th year of operation, and are as ever excited by what this new year has to offer. While Tony takes care of the conducting side of things, the student committee, hand-picked yearly by SUWO members, takes care of everything else. Think of the committee as the SUWO version of the government, except our committee actually does stuff every now and then. This year's committee stars:

Martin Bullock as President - having been in SUWO nearly as long as me, Martin has also recently pre-ordered the next issue of Zimmerframes Yearly. You'll generally find him among the percussion, but he occasionally rendezvous with the trombones too. When he's not busy being in just about every music group that will take him, he studies Maths and is in his Masters year.

Ben Latham as Secretary - Ben is another old-timer, also about to start his fourth year with us. He sits among the most expert of the clarinets, and is about to undergo the voluntary migraine that surely is the final year of a Law degree.

Charlotte Blackburn as Treasurer - after a most successful run as co-Social Secretary, Charlotte has decided to stretch her wings, make some use of the Economics degree she is about to undergo the final year of, and become our Treasurer. She's arguably the sexiest Tuba player you'll ever meet.

James Rhodes as Inclusions Officer - James' main role is to make people feel happy, welcome and loved in the SUWO-sphere. As one of the most lovable people in the world, this is obviously going to be a challenge of mammoth proportions for him. James is a 3rd year Music student and sits with the flautists. He doesn't actually play the flute, though. He just sits with them. He's so lovable we allow him to do this.

Tim Walker as 1/2 of Social Secretary - until 2011 there were few who could match me in the role of SUWO's token loud person. Then Tim came along and gave me the opportunity to semi-retire. Despite not having an obnoxious foreign accent, Tim shall be more than recognisable to all new SUWO members as that chap among the trumpets who says lots. He plays the trumpet pretty well too. I figure they wouldn't let him be a second year Music student if he didn't.

Natalie Farrow as 1/2 of Social Secretary - as a Saxophonist, Natalie is already in an ideal position to be a Social Secretary. Sitting right in the middle of the orchestra provides ample opportunity to talk to be social with players of all sorts of instruments, after all. Natalie  currently whistles the often-deprived middle child that is the Tenor Sax, but may soon be changing it up, as Saxophonists often do.

Alexandra Lee as 1/2 of PR - with most of SUWO being scared half to death after myself and Poppy (the other PR rep from last year) talked about the work involved with the position, Alex was the only person brave enough to volunteer for the role. Her bravery is further noticeable by her joining the veritable cat-cage that is the clarinet section.

Gillian Brown as 1/2 of PR - I've talked about myself plenty.

George Morton as Co-Conductor - This is George's fifth year with SUWO, making him as old, in SUWO years, as me. He spent three years partaking in Trumpet duties before picking up the conductor's baton last year. When not flailing a stick at us, he is writing music and continuing to blow his trumpet (pun!) for his Masters course. He's instantly recognisable by having ginger hair of a calibre that would make Percy Grainger envious.

(Dr) Gareth Widdowson as Co-Conductor/Marketing Material Designer - Having been with SUWO since 2003, Gareth is practically part of the furniture at this stage. But don't read that as an insult. He's like that faithful Chesterfield lounge that has been passed down for generations. As he has just finished his PhD I do not know how involved he will be with us this year. He has however promised to make it all the more unbelievable that he's colourblind and continue to make amazing posters and flyers for us for our concerts.

So that's us. I promise above all that each of us are friendly and approachable, so do not hesitate to ask us about anything you are unsure of. We'll be dotted around the place during auditions, taking your names and trying to calm you down (we all had to audition - we know it's scary).

During the year SUWO has a couple of primary commitments. Every semester we do a concert in Firth Hall, which will be easy to find by that stage because it is where our rehearsals are every week. Most of what we play for these concerts is a combination of fun show tunes, soulful ballads, and one or two truly horrendous pieces from Tony's Secret File of Awful Music. Towards the end of the year we do a couple of concerts in Weston Park, where we achieve the incredible feat of fitting most of us into a bandstand better suited for a small chorus or a string quintet. We normally play our catchier tunes for that one. But of course, our most important yearly commitment by far is our European Tour. Taken every year during the Easter holidays or during the first week of summer, this is when we throw our instruments into a coach, tetris-fit ourselves into the rest of the coach and journey to somewhere in Europe, where we explore, play concerts in some incredible locations, and have what is guaranteed to be one of the funnest weeks of the year. Previous tours have seen us go to Malta, Barcelona, Germany, Belgium and Holland. Where to this year, I wonder? We will have to see.

As for how serious we are as an orchestra… well, I do not think there is a member among us who does not take music seriously. Most of us play to an 8th Grade standard and we take genuine pride in our ability to pull pieces together and create something beautiful for our audiences. But SUWO is not a serious group at all. We are serious about playing good music, but to us the more crucial element is that we get together, play as well as we can, and have a great time doing it. So if you wish to join a group of talented musicians (and me :P) who are in it for the experience of being in an orchestra but do not take themselves too seriously, we are definitely the orchestra for you.

I shall now respectfully sign out before this blog post reaches novel-length proportions. But before I go, I would like to again welcome you to SUWO, and I and everybody else sincerely hope to see you at the Fresher's Fair and at auditions. Until then, peace out!

Friday 8 June 2012

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!

Sunday 20 May 2012

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. :)

Thursday 17 May 2012

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!

Friday 27 April 2012

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!

Tuesday 3 April 2012

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!

Tuesday 27 March 2012

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.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

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!


Thursday 8 March 2012

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.

Sunday 4 March 2012

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!


Monday 27 February 2012

Rehearsals 1 and 2 - Belated footage

"Learn the notes, then forget them." Could we not just skip Step 1? Surely that would save us some time?

I kid, I kid.

So, now that this blog is up and running, I can post some fabulous fotos of SUWO rehearsing, holding shiny instruments, and listening attentively to Mr. T. Houghton, esq. while he imparts his words of wisdom.

Rehearsal 1 was a good start for us, with us working on a few of the pieces we will be performing for our joint concert with MUWO (henceworth SUWO/MUWO concert, or perhaps just SMUWO). Thanks to the talent that SUWO is most fortunate to possess, the pieces were already sounding pretty good.

Most of the orchestra, from the oh-so-enviable vantage point of the 4th Horn chair.

Two trumpeters and a percussionist sit in a SUWO rehearsal, and the conductor says "What is this? A fanfare?"*

Conductor Gareth Widdowson taking charge while Tony does stuff in the percussion section somewhere to the left.

And finally, a horn fanfare.





Rehearsal 2 started an hour later than normal, thanks to SUWO being their usual generous selves and having select members assist in recordings for our friend Pete Meechan. We again came, rehearsed and conquered.



Exclusive live-action shot of Tony Houghton waving his hand backwards and forwards quickly enough for motion blur to appear.

More and more people holding instruments.

We forever dream to have enough money to buy George a desk one day.

Until next time, when there shall be more photos and, possibly, some rehearsal videos, this is Gillian signing out. :)


*sorry about that.

Friday 24 February 2012

Rehearsal 3- Firth Hall

Last nights rehearsal went pretty well. The band got through a lot of the repertoire for the upcoming joint concert with MUWO, and we had a great start at Bill Connor's epic Tails aus dem Vood Viennoise- it's going to sound great! We rounded off a great rehearsal with a pub quiz. It goes without saying that Team Brass wiped the floor, beating every other SUWO team. Unfortunately they weren't quite clever enough to beat everyone else in the pub! Maybe next time!

Thursday 23 February 2012

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the new SUWO blog.  You can keep up to date with the band's concerts, events and general information here.  We will be uploading photos, videos and blogs from a few of a rehearsals.  Our upcoming concert on the 25th March is set to be fantastic!  Join us alongside the Manchester University Wind Orchestra as we explore some of the wind band's best repertoire, including a number of premières, including a Clarinet Concerto by Peter Meecham.