Ensemble Outing

Our city 'Ensemble' concert day yesterday, a time for small groups of local musicians to come together and play something. 'Not more than a dozen musicians and not more than eight minutes' is the rule. We have taken part three or four times now, initially with a slimmed down group of singers but our choir has shrunk so much recently that I think we could all sing now if we wanted to.

There aren't many choral contributions, it is mainly an instrumental event and so we leaven the programme a bit. Yesterday only two of the seventeen ensembles involved singing. The majority are wind players, some adult but mainly high school woodwind and brass players with the occasional string or mandolin ensemble. And sometimes an odd mixture of instruments that has arisen because that is what friends just happen to play and they wanted to play together.

To be honest I don't like this kind of concert much, they wear me out a bit. There is no continuity at all in the programme, Brahms features next to jazz that features next to Handel. And as about half the audience consists of people who are also about to play or just played, or their families and supporters, and it is hard for them to pay attention to what is happening on stage with other performers. Also, it has to be said, there is a significant number who just push off home when they have finished so the last on stage has less than half the audience of the first players. Bad form! But at least in Japan nobody over-runs.

We were OK - two brief a cappella Japanese pieces from the ladies, 'Mizu no naka' and 'Tsuki' and then N-sensei and I joined them for a deliciously 'slushy' rendition of "When you wish upon a star" with E on the ivories sounding like Leigh Harline. I'm getting to be a shocking exhibitionist with this one, I like to croon out to the whole audience and feel the spotlight on my face! Because we usually sing it at Christmas I'd come to think of it as a seasonal song but of course any time will do!

I enjoyed listening to all those High School kids though. The are just so 'keen' - and great musicians too. A lot of my own school years revolved around music-making and I can see an enthusiasm in their faces and a confidence in the way they relate to their friends that are very familiar to me as a layer of very formative emotional experience. If you come to understand music deeply at that time in your life it will aways inside you. "Everything your heart desires will come to you" eh? If my Japanese was better I would have stopped and told them so instead of just giving them a grin as I squeezed by them grabbing a last rehearsal in the corners of corridors backstage.