Crash, bang, wallop!

This afternoon the percussionists swarmed the limelight. The percussion ensemble concert gives the chance for those guys with sticks up the BACK to become guys up the FRONT with sticks.

This year all 13 of the orchestral percussionists let rip on all things that could be beaten, brushed or banged. Instruments included: break drums, toy piano and steel rods fresh from Bunnings Warehouse. Highlights of the program included John Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Ide, featuring both a party and slide whistle.

The concert was a success showcasing the ability for percussion to be both lyrical and just plain LOUD.

Similar to the contrasts of the percussion concert, Adelaide seems to be oscillating between freezing and sweltering. For the large part I think it’s the air-conditioning but it seems that this festival state has given us the whole range of weather.

From rain and clouds to heat and sun and then back to blankets on beds, perhaps good music really does affect the elements?

However the overarching climate around the halls and colleges is one of finality as we enter the second half of the second week of National Music Camp. To all those loved ones across the country, prepare the beds, washing machines and the ovens (please) we'll all be coming home soon! As Emma the librarian painted the picture of NMC as a bubble, the camp is on the brink of popping or maybe that was just my ears at the percussion concert.

 

Lachlan Snow

(download)

The odd couple: one of two percussion tutors, Tom O'Kelly with a smattering of percussionists.

 


 

No man is an island …

… nor is any camper. Every snatched moment of solitude is countered by at least as many spent in the company of like-minded (or perhaps mind-opening) others: from the rhythmic pad of be-sneakered feet at dawn, running solo along the pavement beneath my window, to the steady stream of rehearsal-ready or retiring hordes traversing King William Street back and forth throughout the day; from the lingering strains of isolated instruments carried through the early breeze to throbbing conglomerates filling every pocket of air with resonance; from the first to sit down at table to the last to begrudgingly leave the ball on the oval after the post-meal kick.

We take responsibility for our own notes to play our part in the whole.

Players play, but more importantly they listen, they take in the others around them. Composers gift us their art by delineating on the page the sounds within their teeming brains, administrators perform their own specially designated choreography in an organisational ballet and WAMs write, share, collect and collate.

Even if the only times we see some is while we eat with them, sometimes through this intermittent communion we learn more about one another than if we were to be by their side all day; they have more to tell us, and we have more space to attend to it. I have heard composers spilling opinions and their obstacles, flautists lamenting note-ful plenitude, AAs considering the benefits of layering methods for stage setup and have laughed with my fellow WAMsmiths til my belly ached, over bowls, plates, mugs, napkins and handfuls of varying gastronomic fare.

Musing, and musicking. One needs the other, one feeds the other, and here (hear) we enjoy them both.

 

Jennifer Mills

Words About Music participant

Inside the inner sanctum: the workings of WAM

Dear Reader,

Over the last eight days, you have been enjoying the exclusive access and breathtaking insights into NMC ’11 that my colleagues and I have brought you.  In the true spirit of the parliamentary press gallery, we have stalked the halls and lain in wait for unsuspecting campers, our presence only revealed by the flash of a camera or thrust of a microphone into an unsuspecting face.  Our commitment to journalistic integrity is surpassed only by those at Team Rupert and we walk countless metres and work untold minutes to get the ‘real’ story for you.  But what actually happens in the nerve centre?

High up on Level 4 of our very own ivory tower is the centre of WAM operations.  After completing numerous swipecard checks to gain access, one arrives at the WAM mothership.  Sitting in front of seven computers, our correspondents work diligently in-between checking Facebook, email and various news sites.  Our bodies are sustained by selections of fruit and chocolate, and our minds are constantly attuned by humorous quips on the correct noun for a group of WAM students, or possible synonyms for ‘conservative’  — for the record, the best one so far was ‘Tory,’ but perhaps not in the sentence ‘the music that young Richard Strauss wrote was undeniably Tory’.  

It is not all bottled water and chocolate though.  The merits (or lack thereof) of colons and brackets are hotly debated, and exasperation runs high when a fourth draft of an article is required.  So far our program notes have been a success, all deadlines have been met (Touch wood! – ed.) and production continues on schedule for our radio features and the camp magazine.  Tune in at the end of the week to see if the colon skirmish has developed into a full scale conflict (stand by Ban Ki-moon) and whether ‘WAMologist’ (from the latin studentium musicae wordinundium) is the accepted collective noun. 

With best wishes

Jack Chenoweth

 

The ABC of NMC: Saturday Concerts Review

Highlights of the annual Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp include the two Saturday public concerts as the culmination of each week. This year the Alexander, Bishop and John Curro orchestras presented a varied, though often bleak, repertoire in the buttressed interior of the Elder Hall.  

The John Curro Chamber orchestra, directed by Dale Barltrop, began the afternoon concert with flair in their performance of Telemann’s Don Quixote Suite. The quartet section demonstrated particular delicacy, and the Gallop just enough roughness to suggest a speedy passage. Smalley’s Footwork provided a chance to show off their tango style and the versatility of the ensemble, led by Amy Brookman. The Curro Orchestra’s later performance of the Shostakovich ‘Chamber Symphony’ was even more impressive. This chamber orchestra setting of the Eighth String Quartet adds a richness to the sonic texture, though players were also able to produce sparse, pure tones when required. The work is bleak and shies away from musical resolution, and the final note died away into absolute silence and stillness, before the hall erupted in applause.  

The performances of the Bishop Orchestra were also notable. Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration is a significant undertaking. Unison lower strings showed great depth of sound, and under the free-wheeling and sometimes frenetic baton of James Judd the brass section laid waste to all before them. The Vaughan Williams Symphony No.6 featured some of the best playing of the evening. A piercingly intense opening threw the audience back in their seats, and the juddering rhythms of this underperformed masterpiece were perfectly together. The performance was dedicated to Queensland, in view of the recent catastrophic floods in that state (and all money for concert entry was donated to the Premier’s Flood Appeal). With such melancholy associations, the prolonged pianissimo of the final movement seemed particularly appropriate, though the silence following the work’s conclusion was soon broken by disconcerting simian hooting from the gallery.  

The Alexander Orchestra also demonstrated their versatility across the two concerts. Their performance of Stanhope’s Machinations was an exciting rendition of a crowded work, complete with solo for manual typewriter. The Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3 which concluded the afternoon concert was particularly magical. The beautifully filigreed Elder Hall organ easily provided both a subtle basis for rapturous strings and a dominating declaration in the joyous final movement. The Allegro Moderato was immediately gripping, calls and answers near perfect, achieved with a minimum of gesture from conductor Edwin Outwater. Trumpets were transcendent, and the inner string voices seized their opportunity to shine. Compared to other performances of the work, the immediacy and blend of organ and orchestra was notable. The music gave us goosebumps - a compliment of the highest order.  

All three orchestras shone, displaying their strengths to an extremely appreciative audience.   

  

Anna Doukakis  

Words About Music participant  

 

 

The Three Musketeers of Camp

Sunday morning saw a phenomenon called ‘free time’ appear on our schedules; with most people taking the opportunity to either see the sights, do a bit of shopping, have some down time, go to the beach, do work, sleep or practice incessantly (French horns and violins I’m talking to you).

Whilst the rest of us scamper off to our various activities and to general merriment of our own creating, I had a chance to canvas our three tireless Residential Coordinators (RC) about their week's so far. And so far, so good!

This year’s RC team are Katie Spicer (veteran RC of seven years), Matt Toffolon (once a camper, then a staff member, now RC) and Annette Brown (who declined the RC position a few years ago when her daughter was here for fear of “cramping her style”, but has latterly succumbed and done a couple since).

So what are the essentials for an R.C?

Annette: “Good pyjamas.” All kind of embarrassing situations can be overcome with the proper overnight attire. She bought special pyjamas for camp to avoid these situations this year.

Matt: “A book.” This is definitely the best way to pass the time in quiter moments between rehearsals, meals and "lights out" times.

Katie: “A first aid and sewing kit.” So handy in so many situations.

But whatever the hours of duty, the RCs are definitely a team. It's a case of one for all and all for one! 

 

by Felicity Haigh