Fisheries Broadcast Theme

In March 2011, the Fisheries Broadcast had been on air on the CBC for 60 years. In celebration, the hosts solicited listeners' interpretations of the theme music - an arrangement of "Feller From Fortune". A draw would be held among contributors for a prize of a real wooden Grand Banks dory! The TSO didn't have much use for a dory, but decided to enter for the fun of it. Erika Merschrod transcribed the melody by ear and printed it out in all clefs for us to peruse, a few hours before rehearsal. With about twenty minutes of practice and some improvisation from the lower strings, we played it into Kathy McKay's recorder, Erika submitted it, and the Broadcast aired it a few days later! Here's the recording:

More Dory Music

(In case of link rot, try that day's podcast: we're at about 18:45.)

An, er, boatload of fun - thanks to Erika, Kathy and Alison for helping to pull it off!

Cupids 400 show program

Here we are on the Cupids 400 website, all official and everything:

http://www.cupids400.com/english/events/aug10.php#a20

Date: Friday, August 20th

• Event: Madrigals, Mathematics & Mayhem - Music and Tales of the Renaissance
• Location: Cupids United Church
• Time: 7:00 pm
• Free Admission

The Tenacious String Ensemble invites you to come hear the magical music, tales and poetry of the Renaissance. The period of John Guy's life was a fascinating one with many changes - the Earth was found not to be the center of the universe, a new Christian religion was being born, and Western Europe was taking its first fledgling steps into the New World.

Come hear the music of William Byrd and the poetry of William Shakespeare, and learn of the fascinating figures of the time - Galileo, Copernicus, Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Walter Raleigh to name but a few. The evening promises to soothe the musical ear and take your imagination into the world of the turn of the 17th century.

Date: Friday, August 20th

• Event: Invitation to the Dance
• Location: Pointe Beach Main Stage, Cupids
• Time: 2:00 pm
• Free Admission

Come see and hear the English Country Dancers accompanied by the Tenacious String Ensemble for an afternoon of lively tunes and traditional English dances of the 17th century! Kick up your heels yourself if you dare, as you're invited to "chasse to the right or left" just as John Guy might have done 400 years ago. This event is an informal, fun demonstration of dances of the 17th and early 18th century, with a chance to try some yourself - a wonderful experience to share with the whole family.

Bransles

From Hilary: This is some info I extracted from the net about Branles or Bransles. It was a medieval and renaissance dance form derived from words meaning "To brandish" and "to shake". It was danced by couples either in a line or a circle and there are four known forms of the dance. It was mainly found in France but also appears in Italy and Scotland where it was known as a brail. It wasn't danced much in England but there are a few tunes from the period designated as Bransles. It was mainly danced by peasants and pronounced believe it or not as "BRAWL".

No practice April 6th

Hello all - what an evening - love the nitty gritty work - thanks Alison. Just a note to all that there will be no practice next Monday as it is Holy week and St. David's church is booked every night of the week. See you in 2 weeks on April 13th. Margie

Mislaid music

Hilary Cass believes that she left her music after practice last week (February 16). It was in a yellow folder. Did anyone find it?

Extra Practice

Tomorrow night, January 14th 7:30pm, we have a "fill-in" practice for those wanting more basic note- and bow-work. Next full practice is slated for the 29th.

Performance Video!

Nancy's husband took a quick video clip of our Christmas concert and submitted it for publication. Here we are, folks, in our YouTube debut.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our final get-together for 2007 was Tuesday; we played our current pieces and finished off with some carols, and we had a dozen or so family members and friends along to share our good times with. And the tea and biscuits afterwards was marvelous as well! Alison thanks all for her lovely gift-bag and wishes us a Merry Christmas. Have a harmonious holiday, everyone, and we'll see you all on January 2.

Suggestions for new music?

Alison brought forth several suggestions for us to play over the next few months, and there were quite a few differing opinions on some old standards. If you have ideas on what might be fun for us to tackle in the near future, in any genre, please leave a comment. If you have links to sheet music, audio or video, even better, so post them here. Nothing's guaranteed, but you may have heard something recently that's not foremost in Alison's mind.

Meeting notes

• Since the Suzuki Concerto Class rehearses in the church sanctuary on Tuesdays and doesn't finish until 7:00, we voted to move all future rehearsals to 7:30 (be there to tune up at 7:15) until 9:00, to allow for the changeover. If you forget and get there early, put your ear up against the door to hear the teen orchestra do their thing, because they sound incredible.
• We've been invited to play at a dinner at St. David's on November 1st, and there are enough people available so that we have accepted. It's a free dinner hosted by the women's groups and attended by the congregation and guests to welcome the new minister Rev. Jonathan Dent, and there will be a variety of entertainment. It starts at 6:00 in the church hall; we ought to be there a bit early to get organized. We'll play Corelli's Vivace and the Schubert. Players are welcome to the meal as well, of course!
• To make sure we're ready to perform, there will be an extra rehearsal next Tuesday, October 23 at 7:15-for-7:30.
• Erin has kindly volunteered to serve as music librarian: if you have lost your music or have missed the rehearsal when it was given out, e-mail her with your polite request and she'll get a copy to you. Abuse this privilege at your peril!

Has anyone spotted a YouTube or other rendition of the Schubert online, free to listen to? if so, please post a comment with the link!

Schedule ready!

Margie has sorted out all the ticks, X's and emails to come up with dates most of which most people should be able to attend. (Now there's a straightforward statement if there ever was one.) They are listed in the Calendar box at lower right, and here in plain text:

• Oct. 16/Tuesday
• Oct. 23/Tuesday - EXTRA REHEARSAL
• Oct. 30/Tuesday
  
• Nov. 12/Monday
• Nov. 21/Wednesday
• Nov. 27/Tuesday
  
• Dec. 4/Tuesday
• Dec. 18/Tuesday
  
• Jan. 2/Wednesday
• Jan. 29/ Tuesday
  
• Feb. 20/Wednesday
• Feb. 26/Tuesday
  
• Mar. 4/Tuesday
  
• Mar. 19/Wednesday
  
• Apr. 22/Tuesday
• Apr. 29/Tuesday

All rehearsals will be at St. David's at 6:45-for-7:00 until 8:30 7:15-for-7:30 until 9:00. The next upcoming rehearsal will always show at the top of the Calendar box. As extra rehearsals are scheduled, they'll go there too. See you on the 16th!

How's Monday?

One more thing: please email Margie (unless you've spoken to her) to tell her if you can make rehearsals on Mondays, the only day not on the yellow-ticky-sheet. We'll get this scheduling thing worked out eventually!

First post!

Welcome, players with the Adult String Orchestra! This blog, run by Heather (one of the second violins and resident techie) will be our spot on the web for rehearsal reports, announcements, points to discuss, or anything else on-topic worth sharing. I'm going to attempt to write rehearsal reports in the evening after rehearsal, but would welcome some help with that - no techieness required, just like sending an email. I'll also be the Keeper of the Calendar, over there on the right, and put events there as they are determined. There's an RSS feed to subscribe to, at the bottom of this page, labeled "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" - click there to keep track of updates to the blog. Don't hesitate to leave a comment on any entry! Any questions or requests to put stuff on the web, just let me (Heather) know.