Author: mrsfostermusic

MusicFest is coming! Please note the new date 14th Oct

Our first concert of the year is coming up. MusicFests are informal concerts where students from any year group can perform pieces of their own choice to a friendly and supportive audience. We always have a huge range of music, from students’ very first public performance to students who are already hugely experienced musicians. We have all styles of music from classical to rock to musical theatre and students’ own compositions. There are solos, duets and groups.

Here is the video from a previous MusicFest so you can get a flavour of what it’s like:

Details on how to take part to follow.

Ksenija Sidorova at the Proms 2021

Enjoy this fab clip of Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova playing a piece called Libertango by Piazzolla arr. John Lenehan. Watch from 14 minutes in.

Music podcast recommendation

Soul Music is a music documentary series on BBC Radio 4 which aims to focus on the emotional impact of famous pieces of music. The works chosen can be anything from classical, popular, jazz or religious.

The programme doesn’t have a presenter, but features a montage of interviews interspersed with clips of the work in question. Each programme usually has three to five contributors who have a personal story connected to the piece of music. One is usually a musicologist, conductor or performer who discusses the background to the work or composer, the other contributors are people who have a personal story connected to the piece.

Listen to Soul Music here.

Why music from our teens stays with us forever

The nostalgia surrounding our favourite songs isn’t just a recollection of old memories; scientific studies show we remember more from our adolescence and early twenties than any other period of our lives.

The music we listen to during this period has greater lasting impact than songs in later life because of a psychological phenomenon called the reminiscence bump. Click here to find out more.

All rehearsals start in the week beginning Monday 13th September and we are so excited! Try out the different activities on offer and BRING YOUR FRIENDS!

Calling all clarinet players

Please pop in to CGG or email me (elf) to let me know you play the clarinet. I am hoping to put together a clarinet choir this term. Watch this space … From Mrs Foster

Opportunities at BYMT this term

Bromley Youth Music Trust is an independent music service nationally renowned for providing a very high quality, comprehensive and inclusive instrumental and vocal music education to the young people of Bromley and surrounding areas, as well as providing a wide range of performance opportunities. We are very lucky to have this service in Bromley.

Please click on the picture below to find out more about the many opportunities on offer at BYMT this term:

The Music Hub @ BYMT

The Music Hub is a social enterprise musical instrument and supplies business based at BYMT. The Music Hub sells anything and everything that’s music related. They also consider part exchange and have a range of pre-loved instruments for sale.

Please click here to find out more.

Please don’t try this at home!

Click on the heading below to read this story.

This day in music

Please click here to find out what has happened on this day in the past in the music world.

Extra curricular music @ Hayes this term:

We are SUPER excited to get started with you all. Let’s make 2021-2022 as musical as possible!

Instrumental and singing lessons @ Hayes:

Behind the Doodle:

“Summertime” is a song by American hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. The duo consisted of rapper Will Smith (the Fresh Prince) and disc jockey Jeff Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff). The song was released in May 1991 and became their most successful single.

The song samples the 1974 song “Summer Madness” by the American band, Kool & the Gang.

Have a fabulous summer holiday! Maybe do some really lovely musical things – try a new instrument, learn a new piece, or listen to something different. We look forward to hearing all about it next term.

Adam Ben Ezra (born 1982) is an Israeli self-taught multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator, known for his double bass performances. He is also an online sensation with more than ten million hits on YouTube and a strong social media following. He was introduced to the double-bass at age 16 and was instantly attracted to the instrument’s rich sound. He incorporates elements of Jazz, Funk, Latin and Mediterranean music into his playing, and often uses a combination of electronic effects and pedals to loop his notes in order to deliver a rich wall of sound.

Find out more about the double bass here

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899 – 1974) was an American composer, pianist and big-band bandleader who composed thousands of scores over his 50-year career. He composed “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)“ in 1931. The lyrics were written by Irving Mills. The song is now accepted as a jazz standard.

A big band is a type of ensemble of jazz music. They dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing music was most popular and the big bands provided the accompaniment for dancing. Swing music uses subtle syncopated rhythms (rhythm patterns where stressed notes are placed off the beat).

In contrast to the typical jazz emphasis on improvisation, big bands relied more on written compositions and arrangements. They gave a greater role to bandleaders, arrangers, and sections of instruments rather than soloists. Big bands usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section.

Click here for an excellent whistle-stop tour of an orchestra. See and hear the instruments of the orchestra, played by the musicians of the BBC Philharmonic from their own homes during lockdown.

This is Rondo alla Mambo (inspired by the Third Movement of W. A. Mozart’s Horn Concerto No.3) played by French Horn player, Sarah Willis, and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra of Cuba. Sarah Willis is a horn player in the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. She travelled to Havana in Cuba to teach and discovered that music was everywhere, and was very surprised to come across a monument commemorating Mozart. This was the inspiration for her project ‘Mozart y Mambo’ a one-time musical experience combining Mozart’s horn concertos with traditional Cuban music. Find out more about this project here.

The mambo is a genre of Cuban dance music which originated in Cuba in the 1940s. Listen out for the syncopated rhythms and exciting percussion. Compare the mambo-style melody in today’s extract above (from 57 seconds) with Mozart’s original version here from the 1780s.

Do Not Be Afraid is a choral song composed by Philip Stopford with words by Gerard Markland. It is based on four verses from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 43.

Philip Stopford (born 1977) is an English sacred music choral composer and choir director. He is known for his contemporary a cappella and accompanied settings of traditional Latin and English prayers and hymns. A cappella means vocal music performed without instrumental accompaniment as can be heard in today’s piece. A cappella is Italian for ‘”in the manner of the chapel”‘ – it was originally used in religious music.