The Cafe Trio grown to Octet down to Sextet

[Nick Wyver]

What did you play?

 

[Colin the Bear]

Hookie looks like.

 

[Jeanette]

What did you play?

Mum, I made tea and brownie

Sop!

Jx

 

[trimmy]

With the guidance of Ron we played 'Honey Suckle' and 'Bare Naccesities' which sounded quite pleasing towards the end
A good few hours...it all helps !

 

[Lesley]

I love Bare necessities...doing it on clarinet

 

[Jeanette]

It's been said many times but if you have the opportunity to play with others in a small group it really is fun and will benefit your ensemble playing skills no end.

Sight reading and timing skills are really put to the test and unlike in a larger orchestra, no where to hide especially with @tenorviol ears

Thanks guys I really enjoyed it

Jx

 

[aldevis]

A really cool Cafe.

 

[richardr]

Just to round it off, here's a picture of our organizeress and moderatrix busy....moderating?

 

[Jeanette]

Lol, no rest for the wicked

Jx

 

[jbtsax]

At least you kept your eye on them.

Ooooh. That is a bit "snarky" even for you Targa, but it made me laugh nevertheless.

 

[nickh]

Glad to hear it went well. Would love to have a crack at the bare necessities!

 

[trimmy]

Glad to hear it went well. Would love to have a crack at the bare necessities!

Next month you will

 

[Tenor Viol]

Today was interesting. They seem keen to have me make out I know what I'm doing... so I thought I would pick a piece of music that none was likely to know. So I took a piece of recent dance music (published in 1599 - so pushing 420 years ago) and re-scored it for sax ensemble. We were missing a bari today, so we tried it with tenor on the bottom line, but the chording didn't sound right. So I came prepared with a cello to play the bass line (probably safer than me playing the sop 2 line anyway). My reasoning? It is reasonably unlikely that none of them would know the piece, so no guessing what the line or the rhythm is. Being a Renaissance piece (OK in the UK we call that Tudor) it is polyphonic rather than homophonic which means that each line is separate in terms of both tune and rhythm. Although a short piece and the 'dots' look fairly simple, it was a pretty good test of people's counting...

The Bare Necessities was a piece of sight-reading for me, and probably for others too. Breaking it into smaller sections, trying the trickier bits more slowly and bolting it together, we got a credible version together after an hour's work on it.

One thing that needs work is internal balance - those accompanying need to back off to let the tune come out and that there are nuances to dynamic levels other than 'on' or 'off'... but that should improve with time....

 

[aldevis]

Renaissance of the homophonic...

 

[Targa]

Renaissance of the homophonic...

That could be one letter out.

 

[Nick Wyver]

So I took a piece of recent dance music (published in 1599 - so pushing 420 years ago)

Look. You can't just post that and not say what it was. I'm curious now.

 

[Nick Wyver]

That could be one letter out.

Hobophonic - tramp music.

 

[Targa]

Hobophonic - tramp music.

Would that be a marching band?

 

[jbtsax]

Close.

 

[Targa]

Close.

That's the tune I was thinking of.