In Autumn 2020, OrchLab worked with groups from Bramley Hill Centre (Garwood Foundation) and St Cecilia’s (Leonard Cheshire) on a project inspired by Pictures at an Exhibition, an piece of music by Modest Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky (1839–1881) was a prominent Russian composer who was very interested in creating music that had a uniquely ‘Russian’ sound. He
I see trees of green, red roses too,I see them bloom for me and you.And I think to myself, what a wonderful world! These are the opening lines of the famous song, which we sang and explored at OrchLab sessions in Autumn 2020. This is a great song to sing along to, but it can
‘Mama Don’t Allow’ has become a firm favourite in our live OrchLab sessions, so we’ve created a resource led by Dav Shiel from Drake Music, featuring LPO trombonist David Whitehouse, so you can play and sing along whenever you like! Watch the video titled ‘About this activity’ first, then when you know how to join
Gustav Holst: The Planets Suite English composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934) wrote one of the most famous and popular orchestral pieces ever – The Planets Suite. It has been performed by professional orchestras all over the world since Holst finished it in 1916. It has hugely influenced music written for film by modern day composers. For instance, John Williams’s
‘Uranus: The Magician’ is the sixth movement of The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. You can read all about The Planets in our Listening Guide. ‘Uranus: The Magician’ ‘Uranus: The Magician’ starts off with a dramatic statement of four notes (G, Eb, A and B), which represent Holst’s name. Holst converted some of the letters of his name into that four-note
‘Mercury: The Winged Messenger’ is the third movement of The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. You can read all about The Planets in our Listening Guide. ‘Mercury: The Winged Messenger’ In Ancient Rome, the god Mercury was the winged messenger, taking messages from one god to another. This gives Holst the chance to compose some very fast music which jumps
‘Mars: The Bringer of War’ is the first movement of The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. You can read all about The Planets in our Listening Guide. ‘Mars: The Bringer of War’ ‘Mars’ starts with a repeated rhythm played by the strings – listen for the unusual tapping sound from them. For this opening, Holst asks all the string players
In June 2020 the OrchLab team had planned to run live workshops with Garwood Foundation and St Cecilia’s Leonard Cheshire centre, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic we took our workshops online instead. As part of these sessions we had a ‘Listening Party’ where we watched specially created videos of LPO musicians making music together
Originally written by Bill Withers and Skip Scarborough, this song became a firm favourite of OrchLab participants earlier in 2020, when we visited St Cecilia’s and Garwood Foundation. Lovely Day Join Kate (violin), Alice (oboe), Anne (trumpet), Dave (trombone) and Tom (double bass) and play and sing along! The words are included in the video