Most of the rest of the first half was taken up with some diligent practice of "Ballad" by Mark Houghton, ensuring that we were familiar with all the nuances of this most interesting piece.
Half-time refreshments followed. Thanks, as always, to Trevor for the teas, coffees and delicious apricot cookies.
After the break, the society held its Annual General Meeting, a reasonably informal discussion of the future of the society, in which everyone was encouraged to participate. The most significant outcome from this was the heralding-in of a new Chairperson; we welcomed Larisa Lieberman as our new 'leader' and wished her all the best in her new role. Stepping down from the helm, Denis Stockton was heartily applauded for his stalwart service to the society over the previous twelve years. We were all pleased to hear that Den intends to continue as a member of the BGS and we all hope to see him still attending meetings from time to time enlightening us with his vast experience and subtle sense of humour (!!).
With the AGM concluded, it was back to guitaring. The solo section (which includes duets, trios, quartets, whatever) was kicked-off with a couple of lovely traditional Gaelic pieces by the quartet of Shirley, David, Colin and Marion. This was followed by Andrew Rawlings performing Tárrega's charming romantic prelude "Lagrima". And to finish off, yours truly played a Giuliani piece in D major, but accidentally ended it with the distinctly non-final sounding chord D maj sus4! I obviously failed to take Gary Ryan's sage advice:
Whatever you do with the rest of the piece ALWAYS make sure you play your last note/chord correctly and go out with confidence!
Instead, I scurried away, head-down, muttering excuses....
| Shirley David Marion Colin | Banks and Braes (Scottish trad.) Brian Boru (Irish trad.) |
| Andrew | Lagrima (Tárrega, Francisco) |
| Vince | Theme Op. 102 (Giuliani, Mauro) |
The solo section was followed by a session of practising To The 5th Power, with Kate ably conducting. Towards the end of the evening there was talk of which music festivals we might enter this year. It was decided that we will enter both Maidstone and Beckenham festivals, but we were undecided as to which pieces to play.
Today I discovered an excellent website, describing itself as "an on-line resource for the avid guitar player". It covers famous guitar composers as well as musical forms and the history of guitar music:
Today I discovered an excellent website, describing itself as "an on-line resource for the avid guitar player". It covers famous guitar composers as well as musical forms and the history of guitar music:
Please visit the Current Ensemble Repertoire page to see the pieces we are currently working on.
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