Duet for harp and ... tuba??

It's been a while since I last updated but after a lull in practise and numerous performances on my normal instruments and exams I managed to get back into a practise routine. I have a plan to do grade 4 this term so ordered various books and started learning plenty of pieces. I have narrowed down to three pieces and will make those the main focus of my practise. I also have mine and Chris's wedding to think about and am working on some pieces on the harp, as well as the clarinet, that may get used at some point on the day.

You remember Kirsty and Derek from the last post? They did their grade 5 exams on trombone with me as their accompanist. I am delighted to report they both passed. Kirsty got a distinction and I understand Derek was somewhere around that mark. Maurice (on horn) and Thanea (on cello) from the GOAT are taking their grade 5 exams early this term so I wait with interest to hear how they get on.

Sticking with the brass world and moving smoothly from trombones and horns to tuba I can now explain the title of this post. Shortly before Easter musicians from the music service took part in Live Music Week, a chance for staff to perform in small ensembles and a larger orchestra and travel to schools to present programmes of a variety of styles. I organised my small group and we gave a programme of Latin music to some primary and scondary schools in Cambridge. Rehearsals have to be long as we spend more time laughing and eating cake than we do actually playing. The day was a success and our programme went down extremely well. No one got lost (see last years related post) and no one fell over (not documented but did happen last year). On the Thursday and Friday we teamed up with enough other staff to form an orchestra for a larger scale piece. This year it was Howard Blake's Land of Counterpane which is based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a lovely work, evocative, and imaginative. School children from across whichever area we were in (Huntingdon, then Wisbech) joined us for the performances. The music service regularly invites a guest soloist in for the County Wind Orchestra concerts, usually a past student who is embarking on a performing career and this year we had tuba player Callum Rookes. Callum is currently studying in Denmark and is particularly interested in promoting the solo works of the tuba to a wider audience. One of his pieces he performed as part of the schools concert is Fnugg by Oystein Baadsvik. It is a fantastic mix of singing and playing, multiphonics, beatboxing and many other advanced technical skills. I have heard the piece three or four times now and it never ceases to amaze me! Fnugg means either something very small, or invisible, or it can mean a snowflake. The piece doesn't sound particularly like a snowflake and certainly isn't invisible but it's great fun. The tuba has a great range of tonal characters and personalities and as a contrast Callum wanted to play a slower, expressive piece. My good friend Margaret (featured in many previous blogs) was the orchestral pianist on the day and is the official accompanist (although she never remembers agreeing to the latter role usually because the music is given to her on the day of the performance). On the first day of our performance Margaret was introduced to Callum and Callum (who had already been assured there was an official accompanist) showed her the music. With a rolling of the eyes and a chuckle Margaret had a look. At around the same time Rohan, who was playing harp that day glanced over. 'That would work on the harp' she said. Margaret and Rohan both then tried it out and somehow a decision was reached that Rohan could do it. Callum liked the idea and he performed it with Rohan. The warm, mellow sound of the tuba sat beautifully with the harp and it was a great performance.

Callum and Rohan, as seen by the clarinet section

Could this be a commissioning project for Callum in the future? As harp players tend to be almost as rare as tuba players there is a more practical consideration to think of but musically it would be lovely. Doing a quick search to find the composer of Fnugg I discovered that Callum has just set up his own blog: onemanandhistuba.blogspot.co.uk. There is just one post so far but is well written and hopefully this will develop further. Callum has an infectious affection for the tuba and will never tire of exploring its possibilities. I hope he inspires others to take up this rare but exciting instrument.