Beethoven's Birth house museum.

In Half Term, CBC and I travelled to Germany for our holiday.  CBC LOVES a nomadic holiday- a few days here and there before moving on. It's fun but does end up with lots of travel and can be more expensive. (especially when you only book the accommodation at 5am of the morning you are travelling)

Our first day, he had his Garden Design course so we didn't travel till afternoon and we were driving so after we travelled on Le Shuttle through the Eurotunnel which ended up being an hour and a half delayed, we ended up in a small town near Brussels around 10pm local time.  We stayed in a B&B which was pleasant but simple and then departed the next morning.  We drove for several hours through Belgium and then Germany and decided to stop off in Bonn as we wanted to visit Beethoven's birth house museum.

We parked in a multi-storey carpark off the main street in Bonn and walked to the museum.

Here it is.

I was SO happy to be in Germany as I hate being that tourist who doesn't speak the language or does so badly. I did A level German and adore speaking German even though I have forgotten a lot in the 26 years since I stopped speaking it regularly. It was so nice to be able to communicate in the language. CBC, who doesn't speak German, was very relieved.

You download an app to your phone that will play you audio about each exhibit which is really handy.

The museum is divided into different exhibitions and rooms.

• Beethoven perceived by his contemporaries
• Bonn in times of transition
• Work and Everyday life
• Network. Friends
• Network. Patrons
• Network. Loved ones
• The Artist and his Work
• Blow of fate

We started off in the room with images of Beethoven himself.

I loved the Beethoven bust by Franz Klein, 1812.

It was an authentic representation of the composer. He used a plaster cast of Beethoven's face.  The composer allowed the plaster cast to be taken twice after a panic the first time when he thought he mgiht suffocate.  The only part that was formed later was the eyes as these were obviously closed for the cast.

Two of his friends from the Streicher family commissioned this work of him.  They owned piano factory and they had busts of favourite composers such as Schiller and Haydn and Andreas Streicher who was also a respected composer.

This small miniature was by Christian Hornemen from 1802, Danish painter, during his stay in Vienna. He used the finest paintbrush onto ivory. This shows Beethoven, 31 year old, the first high point of his career where he was truly feeling  and perceived as successful.  He had fashionable look- he was the desired guest of every Viennese salon.   He apparently wasn't usually this well coiffed.  He was often described as being scruffy and didn't like having to dress up.!  He was fond of this small portrait. He gave this to Stefan Von Broining,  a childhood friend, as a peace offering after a fierce argument.

The most famous portrait of Beethoven.  By Joseph Stieler.  He was a highly regarded portraiture of the time.  Beethoven sat 4 times for this portrait. It was unusual for Beethoven to sit still for any length of time so this is quite special. It's the best depiction of him. This is only portrait that actually shows him composing. He holds the  Misse Solemnis score in his hand.  He had a  serious discussion with Stieler to discuss which  work and which page should be depicted.  He chose the Credo.

The forest background expresses Beethoven's love of nature. Stieler created an idealised image of Beethoven. 

For me, this portrait is the most famous image of Beethoven I know so to stand in front of it was pretty special!

The Credo depicted. Have a listen as you read on.

I was very excited to see Beethoven's viola! I didn't know he played the viola! He played this instrument from the age of 19. He was a violist with the royal court orchestra.  He was also the organist for this ensemble.  He got to know and play most of the well known  repertoire of the day through this job. He began music aged 5 with his father Johann on violin.  His father was very strict and told him off for poor playing, at least according to a family friend so it's hard to know how mcuh was true.  We know that Beethoven's first concert was aged 7 in Cologne by his dad. He began organ lessons and then violin with good teachers, sought by his father.  He also attended Elementary school but not secondary school as apparently he wasn't very good at languages or maths!

This is the parts of the organ he played at the time.

This model of the city of Bonn at this time was really interesting to look at and from a child's view, looks incredible.

One thing I loved was seeing Beethoven's manuscripts before they were copied by a copywriter for publishing.  I found it all very scruffy and hard to read so I am glad that wasn't my job!

One thing that many know about Beethoven was that he lost his hearing completely by the end of his life. This is extremely difficult for anyone this happens to. For a musician, this is and must have been utter torture. 

Here was a collection of his various ear trumpets.   The museum taught us that he tried many quirky treatments for hearing loss.  He also had conversation books where his friends would write replies to things he said.  It seems like he was very grumpy and rude!

Another score.

Here's the exterior garden.

I haven't shown you everything, just a few little highlights.

There was a lovely listening room for his Juvenilia with earphones and a lovely chill out room where there are sometimes live performances.  They played a recording of his Moonlight Sonata with a screen that highlighted the notes on the original handwritten score.

We loved the museum but were now very hungry.

We found a patisserie round the corner.

I ate this wonderful chocolate and hazelnut mousse!

Here's a massive dummy in the shop of Beethoven!

After this, CBC ended up buying one of two little souvenirs. I ended up buying a lovely little leather violin keyring in a gift shop opposite which I plan to wear on my belt as a cute little charm!  This was my only holiday souvenir.

We had a bit of a panic with the machine in the carpark as it wouldn't accept our payment but had taken the card and the money.  Curiously, it had a 'call for help' button on it. I called it and in my German, I tried to explain it had taken our money and now wouldn't give anything back!  Miraculously, they managed to make it work remotely and all fine!

It was now time to drive to Frankfurt!  We found bargain hotel in Frankfurt called Hotel Cult. We paid £46 for the night in a double room including amazing buffet breakfast. We found free parking on the street. I'm not too fond of the overly stodgy and meaty traditional German fare and I didn't want this for a whole week so I looked up something local and that night, we walked down the street to a lovely family run Vietnamese restaurant for dinner where vegetables were plentiful!

I should state something gutting I realised on the day we there.  Originally, we had been planning to stay in Darmstadt as that was near the location we needed to be the next day. I discovered that THAT very day, in DARMSTADT, was the famous German Doctor Who convention, Timelash, which I have wanted to attend for a few years and Paul McGann, the Doctor Who actor I have always wanted to meet was there.  I was literally going to be in the town on the day of this German convention! Sigh...another time.

x

Just Sing

 Here's the poem I wrote this week for The Toy Press prompt.

Actually, I tell a lie. I wrote it last week for my year 2 children for later in the term as their current unit of work is all about the interrelated dimensions of music and understanding all the different components/dimensions of music and how they can relate and interlink (for example, when you have a thicker texture, e.g. more instruments playing, the dynamics (loudness) also gets relatively louder. And similarly, when you use shorter notes, it seems like the tempo is getting faster, although it isn't). I thought about changes and then thought about a poem with a repetitive starting word.

And then, when this week's prompt word turned out to be 'smooth', well, it seemed serendipitous that I'd already got a poem with 'smoothly' in.

Just Sing

Sing fast,

Sing slow,

Sing high,

Sing low,

Sing alone,

Sing as a crowd,

Sing quietly,

Sing loud,

Sing happily,

Sing sadly,

Sing mysteriously,

Sing madly,

Sing spikily,

Sing staccato,

Sing smoothly,

Sing legato,

Sing one note,

Sing many,

Sing in unison,

Sing in harmony,

Sing a solo,

Sing in parts,

Sing at the end,

Sing at the start,

Sing short,

Sing long,

Sing right,

Sing wrong.

Sing operatically,

Sing wailingly,

Sing breathily

Sing nasally,

Sing tinily,

Sing GIANTLY,

Don’t sing at all,

Listen silently.

 

Whatdaya reckon?

P.S.  On the subject of poems, my Big Sounds poem has been included in Tyger-Tyger's free-download pack for World Poetry Day on the theme of 'Play' on TES here

Show time!

Hi there, 

I've had a great weekend away at my music course playing Light Orchestral music.  This a particular genre of music which hails from earlier in the century. It is utterly joyful to play!  Weirdly, I was playing my viola, which I don't do very often!  We ate lovely food and I talked to lovely people, had a nice walk and played Qwirkle.

Here's a sample of two of the pieces we played- Fiddlefaddle by Leroy Anderson and Edward German's Nell Gwyn suite.

The return to school last week was ok.  We had 2 inset days and then I had two days of doing reading with Year 3 children (which was quite nice) and then I covered year 6 on Friday but did manage to do a music lesson as part of it. So hard to get started again. I always feel like I can't teach again when I go back- it all feels weird!

This week's Word of the Week for The Toy Press was 'Prop' which was quite hard to use. I've been trying to think of what to write all week and it's only last minute desperation and a sheer stubborn determination not to renege on the target I set myself to not fail on this challenge, no matter how bad the attempt, that I came up with this poem.

Thoughts?

I'

Hope you have a good week!

xx

 

The rainbow dress strikes back!

Hello there!

Before I start waffling, here's some music for you to listen to. I've not heard this piece by the English Composer, Gustav Holst (he of the Planets!) before but I was delighted by the opening music between viola and flute.

The term has ended and the last week went well.

The school concert went really well without too many mishaps and most of the children and their parents turned up. We started 15minutes late so it overran but I was really proud of how well the children performed.   

One delightful thing that occurred was that I applied for a scholarship for one of my year 5 boys who we have been partly funding for flute lessons this year. He has really taken to it and worked hard and I wanted to ensure that he would be able to carry on after he left me so I applied to the London Music Fund and to my delight, he was selected to receive funding for lessons for 4 years.  Such an opportunity for him!

I bought the children involved in the concert choc-ices (the only ice-cream/lolly product which comes in no plastic packaging!)  to say thank you for their hard work and I was delighted with the serendipity that I had bought just enough for everyone AND enough to give one also to the children who had helped out and done extra jobs like putting away my singing assembly things each week and for tidying up the music room.

At the weekend, CBC and I went to camp in Snowdonia for the weekend.  I had a stinking cold but had a gorgeous time and will share some photos soon.

I bade a sad goodbye to CBC this evening as he drove off to Portsmouth to catch the overnight ferry to France.  We are to be parted for 2 weeks as we do different things - he is a checkpoint monitor for the Transcontinental Cycling Race and I am to go to music camp.

Enough waffling, I found some photos from last Summer (on my lost camera which turned up- it was in the walking rucksack!!!) of when I styled the Madras check dress in yet another way.

Let's have a look:

I wore the dress with its V-beck crossover side which I rarely wear as I prefer the straight one but I wore it the other way round here.

I added my pink Peri top underneath with a matching pink rose in my hair and a pink belt.

I added my red polka dot skirt underneath to give an extra layer of pattern to the dress

I decided to hoik up the hem of the dress on one side to see if that gave another dimension to this.

I am not 100% sure I liked this outfit totally but certainly it was different from how I've worn it on other occasions!

Plus my George @Asda blue and gold velvet pumps!

I've been practicing for our flute recital on Friday

Very excited as we've practised lots! I HOPE people come to watch especially as my friend Tony is coming from Kent as we are performing his beautiful arrangement of Debussy Petite suite for two flutes and piano for the first time.

x

 

A musical week

Last week was incredibly busy for me in terms of performances and practices but also very positive.

Let me work backwards.

Sunday morning, I was up bright and early for church. As I usually do, I played my flute for the morning alongside Sue, our lovely worship leader on piano.

After this, I headed home and did a couple of things.

In the afternoon, we headed off to the Chelmsford countryside to our friend Annie's house to commemorate her lovely Mum, Inge's life.  Inge died a year ago.  The previous night, I had texted Annie to see if she would like me to play something for the scattering of Inge's ashes and she was delighted. I played Annie's Song and Gossec's Tambourin, two pieces that her Mum had liked a lot (the latter, my Mum made me learn when I was in Year 6 and I finally know why she liked it- apparently it was a Radio theme tune!

The vicar from Inge's church read a Bible verse and a prayer and then they played Inge's ashes in a hole and planted a beautiful rose.

We then ate delicious Indian food and enjoyed the garden.

He's Shady! He's more panther than cat but is very friendly.

I wore a shirred dress from Oliver Bonas that I admired last Summer but finally managed to find secondhand on Vinted in my size at a cheap price!

Back to Saturday night, CBC and I went to dinner at a gorgeous Vegetarian restaurant, inspired by Moroccan and Lebanese flavours called Sababa! All the food was tasty but I adore the Cauliflower wings!

Saturday, around 5pm, we went over to a colleague of CBC's from Azerbaijan who is a specialist Baroque musician.  We played through some Handel flute sonatas with me on flute, him on Harpsichord and CBC on cello continuo.  It was lovely. I'm not used to playing Baroque music much so it was a novel experience.  Their home is beautifully decorated with vintage pieces in profusion. There was a whole line of cuckoo clock on the stairs and some beautiful Grandfather clocks!

Look at that beautiful inside!

Saturday morning, I woke up irritatingly early having got to bed very late and went out to water the garden at 7.15am.

We headed to Leigh on Sea for the annual Art trail.  We bought my mum a piece for her birthday by Katrina Parris who we already own 3 pieces by.

Friday night, I performed the epic Mahler's 9th symphony with Orchestra of the City.  This mammoth work is 90minutes long with a huge orchestra.  It went fantastically but the church was very warm!

At school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I hosted my very first outdoor Summer performances at 9.30-10.00 involving 180 children each time from years 1-6.  They sang songs from Bangladesh, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Congo, Romania, Japan amongst others.  All of them went well in their different ways!

Thursday night, I was supposed to be going to Gamelan but I discovered that I cannot do the gig next weekend at the Southbank Centre for an Asian festival so I had a much-needed evening off. I still had choir after school though!

Wednesday, apart from the aforementioned school performance, we also had Exhibition evening from 4-6 at school and then I had to go to an Orchestra of the City rehearsal in Vauxhall!

Tuesday night, I headed to CBC's school to play Tenor saxophone in his school Big Band barbeque.  This was fun and I really enjoyed being part of this even though I was sight-reading everything!

Monday night, after Drumming Club and recorder club through the day, as well as regular music teaching, I headed off for a rehearsal with my flute trio/quartet (usually but 4th member is away) for our forthcoming recital in Brentwood on 25th July.   We played through all our pieces and then I headed home.

It had been a super busy week, enjoyable, but I was sorely tired and it didn't help that I still kept waking up early!

1 week to go and the school concert is tomorrow night.  Lots of parents still haven't responded to my multiple messages about it so have no idea how many are going to turn up!?!!

Hope you are well!

x

 

Trumpeting for joy!

 It's been a good day! 

I woke up early, ahead of my alarm-clock (although on that subject, I MISS sleeping through the night- whhhy, can't I sleep?!?!) and managed to phone my Doctor's to get an appointment for today.  I then left early and made it into Lidl before school to get some breakfast and also picked up a Good-to-Go £1.50 veg/fruit box which I haven't seen in a while.   It wasn't hugely full but it had Broccoli (which alone is around £1 recently), lettuce, a few oranges, satsumas, plums and a few potatoes.

I got to school and took Singing assembly for Reception, Year 1 and 2 and then it was time for the rescheduled lesson which was being filmed by Anglia Ruskin university for their BEd in Primary Teaching course.  I am pleased to say that the children were absolutely fantastic and they were really enthusiastic and worked really hard.  I would be proud for people to watch that lesson. I was teaching the children about The Baroque Sonata and Domenico Scarlatti.

We started with a recap of their feedback from their Chiaccona performances last week and then I introduced them to Domenico Scarlatti.  Fun facts for you: He was born in the same year as J.S Bach and G.F. Handel  and was the son of a composer, Alessandro Scarlatti.  He was born in Italy but moved to Spain with his patron later in life.  He took part in a contest with Georg Handel to find out who was the better keyboard player. Whilst Handel was declared the master of the organ, Domenico was acclaimed as being as equally good at the Harpsichord as Handel.  He was a real virtuoso!

I introduced them to the structure of the Sonata and then we listened to this one and answered some questions about it. After that, we composed a piece of music in Binary form as a class, which we performed and they did a superb performance which they were really proud of.  M, the lecturer from AR was really impressed and couldn't believe what my Year 6's achieved in the lesson.   I may also go to the University next year to teach a lesson to the undergraduate students which is exciting!

After that, I had my second class who also produced a great piece. This made me happy as the 3rd class, who I have on Thursday afternoons, were very apathetic and disengaged, though their performance was ok.

At lunch, orchestra had a good rehearsal and then I ate a delicious combination of Hummus and pomegranate seeds on toast (another staff member didn't want her large pot of seeds- I am the staff room dustbin) .

In the afternoon, after some PPA time, I collected my Guided Reading group who are always excited to see me and we had our session outside.  We had a great session. Just one moment where I went into spasmodic coughing and the children were sitting there, saying, "Are you ok?  Oooh, you're really red! You have tears running down your face!" I had to go and get water. As they said how worried they were, I made some macabre joke about how it wouldn't have been fun if their music teacher had died in front of them. One of them said, "Hmmmm, that would make a good story..." and later, another one said she was going to write said story! I am happy to be writing inspiration, no matter how dark!

After my group, I headed homeward for my appointment and came home.  

Now had to do some work tidying my house as my younger sister and her boyfriend are coming over tomorrow.  It's lovely because I saw my older sister last night as she came over because my niece goes to a trampolining session in my town!

I had some really exciting (for me!) news two days ago which I'm not allowed to share yet but I hope to soon!

Here to finish is my poem for the week.  The brief word was 'Trumpet'.  I actually used this word the other week but I came up with the standard use of the word. Not my favourite poem I've ever written but I suppose it will do!

Trumpet

I love to play the trumpet,

Yes, it’s great ‘cause it’s so loud!

Doesn’t matter if I’m shy,

My sound is justly proud!

I love it ‘cause I get to make,

A silly raspberry sound,

I’ll buzz my lips in the mouthpiece,

And all sounds will be drowned!

They’re played for royal fanfares

That will introduce a king,

By soldiers in smart uniforms,

Attention they will bring.

It plays in Jazz and Classical,

In Reggae and in Pop.

You only have 3 valves to press,

That’s really not a lot,

It’s shiny, golden, not too heavy,

Though tubing’s metres long,

Its sound comes from a shiny bell

Though doesn’t play ‘Ding-dong’.

You get to use these things called mutes,

That modify your sound,

You can be heard above a band

For miles and miles around.

I might go rather red in face,

When playing without rests,

But I will say forever more,

That Trumpets are the best!

@KezzieSquirrel

Hope all is well with you!

xx

Violin

 Here's a card I made for our friend's 90th birthday.

We went to our music camp to celebrate with her. The celebrations included chamber music, an orchestra session, drinks and nibbles and a 3 course dinner.

We arrived around 2.30pm- CBC went to play chamber music and I had a walk in the woods with a friend Ellie.  We had tea at around 4pm and then we played Beethoven' Pastoral symphony with the birthday girl leading. After that, we had drinks and delicious canapes.  The dinner was really lovely and the barn had been so beautifully decorated. There was an absolute mound of cheese to eat after the 3 courses- it was a real feast!!! We chatted to lots of lovely friends and finally left waaaay too late. We arrived home at around 1.15am!!!

The birthday girl is a violinist who is also a keen gardener. After the success of my floral piano card, I decided to adapt the design I used for a card for CBC. I printed off a picture of the side of a violin and used it as a template to cut around some purple floral paper (realised I missed a trick of using paper with pansies on so we could have the pun of violas with a viola). I then drew on the F hole and the purfling around the edge of the fiddle shape. I stuck it to some lilac card and decided I wanted a patterned edge so I used my flower paper edge punch to decorate the edge.

The final detail was to add a Happy Birthday in irritatingly small silver outline stickers.

As an extra geeky touch, I wrote the birthday girl 's name in fancy Calligraphy on the envelope and used the Segno for the S of her name.

What do you think? Xx

Piano girl

I've had this dress for almost 9 months.  I remember seeing it on Miss Patina's website a couple of years ago and absolutely loving it! A sailor look, ruffly sleeves AND musical??? Check!

But the Dainty Melody dress was £85 and you can't return, only exchange, I think!  Luckily, I saw it on eBay for much cheaper last Summer and I jumped at the chance to buy it.

I wore this to church on Sunday and to my orchestra rehearsal. The delight I got from fellow congregation members was so sweet!

I wore my Ugg boots with it.

Awful picture but I wore my Primark Dalmation beret and added a tiny dainty music brooch that was a present from my ex-deputy head teacher.

And my Tatty Devine music necklace (was also an eBay bargain!) 

 Even the white cuffs have a little piano pattern on them! So fun!

Hope all is good with you!x

Marching into Christmas song

It's time for my Annual song sharing!

I don't know if there is any one new out there reading this blog but in case you are new, I have a Christmas tradition that every year, I compose a new Christmas song for my school Christmas carol service.  I made a list of all the songs I have written this year and there are 19! So next year will be my big 20th special! I need some new inspiration for lyrics and subject matter as I have got many aspects of the Christmas story covered but I'm not worried. Something always comes to mind!

This year, I decided I wanted to write a song for the younger children. Out of the carols/songs I have written, only 3 of them have been written for the younger children (FYI, these songs are: 5 little snowflakes for Foundation Stage, Christmas, Christmas for Year 1-2 and Caesar wants a census for Year 3-4.  This year, I decided to pen a piece for Years 3-4 choir.  Last year, we sang a very simple song called See the Star of Bethlehem which is a very simple round.  I got the children to march from the back of the church to the front and they loved it.  So, I decided I wanted a Marching song.  Immediately, I decided that it would be called Marching into Christmas and would introduce all those who travelled to Bethlehem for the nativity- Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men and also include the prophets who foretold Bethlehem.  In the end, rather than doing anything particularly clever, noteworthy or interesting with the structure, it is a simple Verse-chorus structure  with a very simple coda added.  It needed to have a strong beat, be in simple 2/4 time and the children would march to the chorus.

I came up with the first 2 lines on holiday in Belgium

I then got stuck for a while and worked out the first verse the 2nd week back

The third week, I worked out the other lyrics and the piano part for the chorus and at the last minute, wrote the verses.

When we first taught it to the kids, they seemed to like the chorus but the words seemed a bit tricky for them.

However, they returned a week later full of enthusiasm and seemed to get it. The children who struggled with reading (I had 2 SEND 1:1 children in choir and a few who struggle with reading) and they really engaged with the chorus and marching so I was glad to have made the chorus the way it was.

Here they are singing it. It's a little bit rough and ready but I hope you can hear the enthusiasm!

Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,

Searching for the new King promised long ago,

Let us join them boldly, joyful in our hearts,

Anyone is welcome, evermore!

1. Prophecies were made first, they foresaw Bethlehem,

Teaching the Messiah was born in Bethlehem,

The birthplace of King David, the place where he'd be found,

Come along and seek him, come and seek that king!

Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,

2. Mary then and Joseph, seeking Bethlehem, 

Made their way so humbly on from Nazareth,

Travelling for the census at the time of birth,

Everyone was searching, searching for that place!

Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,

3.  Shepherds from the fields were sent by heavenly hosts

They obeyed the summons, to greet the new born King,

Bringing gifts of lambs, they hurried on their way.

Everyone was welcome, welcome in that place!

Refrain: Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,

4. Wise men next they journeyed, following a star,

travelling from the East, they travelled from afar

First they sought King Herod, his scribes they told the way,

Everyone was welcome, welcome, come and see!

Marching into Christmas seeking Bethlehem,

Searching for the new King promised long ago,

Let us join them boldly, joyful in our hearts,

Anyone is welcome, 

EVERYONE is welcome, 

You are all most welcome,

Evermore!

Bonus for anyone who plays the piano or fancies a sing along, here's a little play along video of it

Here are songs from previous years:

Star in the Sky

Sing a song of Celebration

Joy

Hope this Christmas

Love is all you need

Mary 

Feel the Christmas beat

Join in our story

Ring out the bells

Shepherds Swing

The innkeepers rant

This year, we also resang 2 songs which have never appeared on blog before, From the East  and Caesar wants a census so let me know if you fancy me sharing those?

xx

Plums and Aubergines

Things have been a bit fraught this week- mainly due to stressful experiences playing the piccolo.  It's stressful enough playing the piccolo- everyone can absolutely bloomin' 100% hear every single note. It hurts your ears to play such high pitched sounds.  It's quite high pressure and hard work. When the conductor then makes you play a really high, fast, screechy and loud part by yourself at least seven times with the whole orchestra listening in pain (as it's so high)- it does not do much for one's confidence, let alone making it sound any better.  The concert is Sunday. I will survive it. 

Anyway, I thought I'd share this beautiful dress I bought in Winkelmann's- a charity shop or thrift shop in  Bruges.  It's made out of that lovely waffle cotton and cost 7 Euros.

I loved the sort of Prairie/vintage vibes it has going on and is soft, comfortable and easy to wear.

I wore it to church on Remembrance day with my Florence-bought leather boots and my Poppy.

 Despite the stressful start to the week, OUTSIDE of school, actually, in school has been positive and I am going to list the things here to remind me that, though I may be playing the piccolo awfully, school is ok!

• Lovely Year 6 girl bought me After Eight mints because I happened to mention they are amazing!
• Drumming club are hilarious!
• Year 3-4 choir were SO sweet when I announced who got the solos- they came out to their parents and ran screaming to tell them. That I managed to give them that joy made me so happy.
• Year 4 were composing their own melodies yesterday- I'm actually really enjoying their lessons at the moment and they did well!
• Year 1 weren't so awful this week- I've been teaching them 'In and Out the Dusty Blue Bells' - usually chaos but actually wasn't! Even managed to introduce rain sticks and ganzas to accompany it! Not usually done that in previous years.
• Singing Assembly has been full of enthusiasm.  Our Sports Coach LOVES I saw three ships come sailing in and BEGGED me to include it in our Christmas performances.  He practically ran into the hall when we were singing it and belted it out with all the children in Year 3-4
• Year 5-6 were in good spirits this morning and several children told me later, how much they love singing assembly. 
• Introduced all of Year 5 to the Tabla today- they were utterly awestruck by how fantastic it is! Watch the video below right to the end just to see how amazing and virtuosic this instrument can be.
• I am so grateful to the fantastic girl who donated her older brother's unwanted Tabla about 10-13 years ago that has meant I am able to show them it in real life.
• Playground duty this morning- surrounded by my Year 5 girls!
• Grateful for my Year 2 colleague who is probably my closest friend at school now. I would never have imagined we would have become friends originally, as I was a bit scared of her but she is kind and cares.
• Grateful we have a Lidl so close to school!
• Grateful for finding joy in  returning to writing poetry in recent times!

Hope that you can find joy in the things you do this week!

xx

Flowing skirts

As I've mentioned before, I  LOVE Summer clothing! This week, thank goodness, I've reverted to wearing more of my Summer outfits as the weather decided to improve!!

This outfit, above, was one of my favourite Summer outfits. I wore it on an extremely hot day and felt pretty cool!

The skirt was a purchased from Zoe Del Mondo in Majorca last April.  It has a shirred back and is really comfortable.

The top is cotton lace and was bought in a charity-shop. I think, I posted about how it reminded me of a shop called Uluwatu when I lived in Bali that I fantasized about buying something from.  Their shops were airconditioned, soothing dark walls and contained beautiful Balinese cotton lace clothing in neutrals (not usually my bag). I felt so calm when I when I entered these serene boutiques. Of course, I was never able to buy anything from there as the cheapest garment cost my monthly rent.  Finding this makes me feel nostalgic.   It's very light and airy also!

The shoes are Huaraches made by philanthropic brand, Toms.  I bought them in TK Maxx a good few years ago. They are leather and cotton cord and remarkably cool and airy. Are you detecting a theme in this outfit? 

The necklace was made by Ladybird Likes who made my Clara Oswald moon collar clips!

Here was last weekend's Sunday outfit, worn for church! Again, cool and comfy.  The top, from Tescos, has been in my wardrobe since at least 2013 if not longer (I remember wearing it in a photo in my childhood home on this blog).  My belt was another Majorca purpose and the skirt from Polperro this Summer! My shoes, charity-shopped in Maldon by German brand Rieker are another Summer footwear staple! I think my Swarovski heart necklace was either a present from the lovely Lin, my mum's bestfriend, or Grandad! I can't remember which one!

This week has been tiring but ok.  We started back at KCO, my regular orchestra, playing 2 pieces I am very familiar with, Haydn's final symphony- his London Symphony (number 104 out of his outfit! He wrote more symphonies than any other composer and did so much to develop that particular form and structure of music that he gained the nickname, "The father of the symphony!".  I only discovered recently that he ONLY used clarinets in his 101st symphony onwards!

This orchestral piece has a few memories for me.  The first being, we played it in my the Intermediate Orchestra at my local Music Service that was my life for so many years. As a viola player, I never got to play my flute in the senior Symphony orchestra, since the Viola had so many fewer players than played the flute.  This meant my only time playing flute in an orchestra, as opposed to a windband, at this music centre, was when I was in the Intermediate orchestra for one year.  This piece we played in my final concert and I had a little solo where we dropped down to just one player to a part as opposed to 2.My next memory of it was it is was one of my set works that we studied for A'level Music.

Coming back to it with Kensington Chamber Orchestra a good few years ago, as an adult was lovely, but to come back to it again with the same orchestra but with a flute player I actually like sitting next to me, was a delight! It felt SO familiar and easy! I joked to the first oboe player (who was covering for our regular oboe) that I could probably do an Aurora Orchestra on it and play it from memory! Take a listen. 

The other piece we are playing is Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture. It's also very familiar!

The third and final piece in the concert was really disappointing for me.  It's by a music camp friend, Ian Stephens, who is a superb composer. It's a Double Bass concerto written as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Ian talks about his piece below.  Worth a listen!  

But why is it a disappointment to me?  

Well, because I didn't realise that the accompanying instruments are only string instruments and there are no flutes! So I don't get to play it!  I think it will be very beautiful. If you would like to hear its very second performance, you can find details of our concert on the 5th October here.

School has been mostly ok this week apart from the interminable losing of my voice!  The week goes from Young to Old for me, starting with Year 1's and moving up the school throughout the week.  This is actually definitely the best way round for it to be!

I do hope everything is well with you!

xx

Music does

Often, in school, we like to find cross-curricular links in lessons we are teaching.   I teach music but often I teach other things.

Today, in Year 3, I was recapping what they had learnt last week about Jazz music and scatting.  We recapped a song and then they had a chance to imitate my scatting improvisation. I gave a few of them the opportunity to lead the class (which they did with great bravery, gusto and enthusiasm).  We then had a go at improvising to a Jazz backing track on the recorder.  We then moved onto listening to some Reggae music and learning about that genre of music.  Through the course of the lesson covered history, geography, social issues, had a discussion about the Rastafarian religion, had a talk about what constituted racism (A Bangladeshi boy told me it was racist to refer to someone as 'Black' when we were reading a short biography of Bob Marley which mentioned his mother was black and his father was white ) and, with the help of some of the other children, made them understand that referring to someone's colour is not racist but a way of referring to something special about them and you would be racist if you said something nasty about somebody or said there was something about them that implies they are 'less' than someone else because of their skin colour/race/family background/origin. It felt like we had covered so much in that one lesson!  Similarly, in the afternoon, in year 2, we have been learning about communication and this lesson was on recognising and imitating bird song with our voices and instruments- it felt fun to teach them some general and nature knowledge of birds!  We ended up counting the different pitches in bird song and I showed them how to represent these graphically in symbols

Music can cover maths, English, science, Geography, RE, history, social issues and in other lessons: art, DT, PHSE.  But of course, it is also very much itself!*

*Also met a lovely parent today! What a kind and pleasant man who was so proud of his two lovely girls, one of whom is performing in our recorder festival next week.

Ladybird

When I had one of my several hospital appointments, I nipped into my local charity shop on the way home and saw this on the mannequin.  I found a good old fashioned walking stick for my Treasure Island production but ended up just trying this on!  I ended up buying it, for a very reasonable £3.75 and promptly wore it to go and watch Voces 8. I decided to add this stretchy petal belt to cinch the waist and the cashmere cardigan for warm. Knee high boots and a beret completed the look. 

All my scans and things came back negative so I've been discharged.  Hopefully all is fine so I am very grateful for that...but not sure what caused my pains/issues.  Thank you for all your positive thoughts.

Last night I went to watch CBC's school evening of song. It was beautiful.  The choirs and singing at his school is excellent!  I'm going to be doing some singing of my own on Bank Holiday Monday as I am returning to my old sixth form school to record 3 Christmas cantatas that were composed by the wonderful Head of Music.  I loved the 2 that I sang when I was at the school for two years and I am very excited to sing them again and see my teacher and many old friends I haven't seen for 20-25 years!!

Today, I have had a headache all day. I had one yesterday and was hoping, after my late night at CBC's concert, I would be able to sleep it off. Sadly, CBC was up at 6am (or possibly earlier) rampaging around the bedroom and house packing for the Duke of Edinburgh expedition he's leading on this weekend. He is incapable of doing it quietly or without asking me where X,Y, or Z are so I was fully awake and exceedingly cross that I was woken early as my headache was still very much pounding and present and has remained so all day.

I went to town to scour the charity shops for items needed for Treasure Island. Sadly, the only one I managed to locate was a vintage Parasol (buying the vintage one was cheaper and more eco-friendly than buying online from eBay.  I hope to find some more items at some point soon!

We had a polling day at school on Thursday so I was working from home. I had to join in for 2 Microsoft Teams sessions with Nursery and ended up doing lots of work though never as much as I wanted to.   It was so nice not to have to take the trains into work and back and for once, I didn't have any rehearsals to go up to London for which is what usually happens when I have a polling day at school!

Since I'm teaching a short cantata telling the story of Persephone (to link to the Year 5 Greeks topic), I'm playing the year 5-6 children Gustav Holst's The Planets in Singing Assembly this half term and I've been enjoying sharing little details with them to look out for.

For instance, in the final movement, Neptune, listen and watch out for the larger and lower versions of instruments- at the start of it, together with the regular C-flute, Holst uses the Alto Flute playing a parallel harmony (which plays 4 notes lower than the regular flute and has a wonderful smoky timbre) plus the Bass Oboe (bigger, lower oboe) and he even employs an off-stage female chorus at the ending which really does give the name Neptune, the Mystic, its due.  The piece ends with this otherworldly sound.  In addition, he uses 2 harps, instruments associate with magic and mythology in music and the Celesta, a keyboard instrument that hits a glockenspiel type instrument inside when you press the keys.

I really recommend watching the video below. I have made it start from Neptune but if it hasn't worked, scroll forward to 44:30.

The previous week, I played them Mars, the Bringer of War and in Drumming Club, we have been learning some of the repetitive rhythms used in the piece.  Next, week, we'll be listening to Mercury, the winged Messenger (AKA Hermes!)