With a car loaded full of instruments and equipment I set off nice and early for West Road. When I arrived the place was already buzzing with people being busy and doing important things. I spotted Claire, one of the music teachers at my Friday school on the sponsorship desk. "I didn't know you were going to be here" I said. "Neither did I until last night" she replied. She had been at a concert the previous evening and got cornered by Maurice who asked if she was free today. Not really, as she was supposed to be planning for the week's lessons but how could she resist the opportunity of helping out some Goats!
The rest of the afternoon was filled with rehearsals as each group took a turn at polishing their prepared performances. I heard the end of the brass rehearsal. It was good but, well, had it improved since last time... Their leader Paul complimented them on their ability to avoid watching the conductor. They had all truly made it as brass players! The woodwind rehearsal was great. All of the clarinettists had improved and the ratio of squeaks to real notes was considerably better. There were still some issues with intonation as some notes were a little on the flat side but we briefly covered a few technical things to help. We also had the privilege of composer Simon joining us in the clarinets. I thought he was doing rather well for a beginner especially as he hadn't played at the January rehearsal but it turned out he had played properly at school, doing grade 8 and beyond before giving it all up to concentrate on the recorder. Viv was in fine form encouraging us and giving useful tips about breathing well before the note, and how to make the piece dance by making phrases lighter.
The choir sounded surprisingly good. I have to confess I didn't look at this but with enough semi-confident singers around the support was useful. In the strings rehearsal Steve was very thoughtful of the harps and adapted some of the dynamics so that the harps and guitars could be heard. I could hear what we were doing but the sound wasn't really carrying out front. I did feel the sound and ensemble here were just a notch above the other two groups but would the audience be judging on that?
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| Highly Strung - in rehearsal |
Finally the Goats all came together to rehearse the full orchestra piece. Russell was our leader for this and his dry humour and thinly veiled sarcasm gave us the confidence we needed. I was also able to give one last piece of advice to the clarinets which was "Don't worry about the squeaks as the meaty tone of the oboes nicely covers the higher frequencies and prevents them from travelling further than the edge of the stage."
I joined Cambridge Wind Band on sax for their rehearsal, again with Viv. Their previous concerts have been in a large boomy church in Cambridge and the difference in sound was fantastic for them. They have their own concert here in April so it was great for them to try it out. Prime Brass followed and then practise time was over.
The Bang, Bow and Blow was in full swing out in the foyer with two theremins, a double bass and some lower brass on the go. A few children had a go on the contrabass clarinet, with mixed results but many enjoyed hearing about the history. I also learnt recently that one of the Goats is related to a Doctor Who from the 1970s so my contra will almost certainly have accompanied some of his antics on screen! The audience went into the hall and it was time to begin!
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| Mini Theremin |
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| Mighty Moog |
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