Recorders
Post lock-downs, we restarted group playing on Monday 26 July 2021, taking sensible Covid precautions and well spaced out in the generous space of Matson Baptist Church, with windows and doors left open and no sharing of music. We have since met weekly to make up for lost time and attendance has been very good, at around 20 players per session. We are continuing to meet mostly weekly but still taking Covid precautions.
From the first of these meetings the playing and sight reading has been excellent, with little sign of the enforced break. During the break, our conductor, John Thorn, had made many new arrangements of music for the group and these have been introduced together with old favorites and requests. Music has ranged through Elizabethan Madrigals and Baroque Choral pieces, to ragtime songs, Oklahoma, and even a George Formby song.
Meeting subs are now £1.50 per session.
The group started from scratch in Sept. 2007, with many members new to reading music and playing any instrument. We now (March 2022) have 28 recorder players able to sight read and play music of all styles in up to 8 parts, and even play divided into 2 choirs.
The Band generally consists of about 3 sopranos (descants), 5 altos, 5 tenors and 8 basses, plus our conductor, John Thorn. Several members are now able to play 2 or more types of recorder, providing useful flexibility in the line-up. Some new members have been recruited since the post lockdown restart
Meetings are held on Monday mornings at Matson Baptist Church, Matson Avenue, Gloucester, (GL4 6LA) and runs from 10.00 until 11.30am. We have an extensive repertoire of over 270 pieces of music.
Most sessions also include at least one piece of new music with a view to improving our sight reading.
Our music ranges over a great variety of styles, eras and rhythms including; classical (mostly renaissance and baroque), folk, ragtime and jazz, popular songs and hits from the musicals. Sometimes we supplement the Recorder Band with other instruments, e.g. cello, percussion, or the piano.
We all get a real buzz out of playing together in a friendly atmosphere. There is a real sense of achievement when a new, rather demanding piece of music is finally conquered, with every part entering at the right time,-- and nobody playing in the rests!
The group plays mostly for its own enjoyment, but we do occasionally perform for an audience. Twice a year we host a joint playing session with u3a Recorder groups from all over Gloucestershire, when there are sometimes over 50 players.
The Group is not really suitable for beginners, but if you already play another musical instrument well and are a reasonably competent music reader, it would not take too long to teach yourself the basics of recorder playing such that you could join the group. [The tenor recorder, rather than the descant, is recommended as the best starter instrument.]
John Thorn.