Listening to Music
Convenor: Pat Millar Tel: 01633 891801
Stop Press 25 November 2009
Today our group was visited by Mr Nigel Jarrett, who gave us a very interesting talk on "Music Critics and Criticism". Mr Jarrett, a distinguished music critic himself, described his experiences writing for the South Wales Argus on music and the arts over many years and shared with us his views on the musical scene in Newport at the present time. He felt that popular support for classical music had declined since the closure of the Central Hall in the 1960s, but that this trend might well be reversed with the growing popularity of the excellent concerts now being promoted at the Riverfront Centre.
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Our group meets weekly, on Wednesday mornings from 10.00 am to 12 noon. We listen to a wide variety of music, usually but not entirely classical – on CD or audio-cassette – selected by our members.
We usually start the meeting with a substantial work – a symphony, concerto or piece of chamber music for example, presented by various members in turn. This enables us to hear a major work in its entirety and so appreciate it fully. For the remainder of the session we have a selection of shorter pieces, again presented by our members, so that everyone has an opportunity to play his/her own choice from time to time. Occasionally, if any member wishes, he/she can present the whole programme thus giving us an opportunity to study a particular topic in depth.
We also have on occasion followed an eight-week course (on CD) on the life and works of a particular composer and so far have enjoyed studying Schubert and Mozart. We have also been fortunate to have guest speakers from the Welsh National Opera and the National Orchestra of Wales, following which our members have been privileged to attend rehearsals of the NOW in St David’s Hall in Cardiff. On another occasion, we had a talk from a local craftsman, who demonstrated the whole process of making a violin from the original block of wood to the final, beautiful instrument – following the methods laid down in the note-books of the Stradivari family of great violin-makers.
Normally however, our members choose and present the music we hear. There is a wide variety of musical taste and knowledge within the group. In a single session we may hear anything from Bach to Schoenberg, some opera, a brass band selection, a Beethoven string quartet, a Chopin piano sonata, someone’s favourite artiste (Bryn Terfel, Ella Fitzgerald . . . ), a humorous item from Anna Russell or Flanders and Swann, and a well-known symphony of Haydn or a little-known work from Avro Part. In this way, we all learn from one another and are introduced to (and appreciate) genres of music that perhaps we would not normally choose to hear – AND – we enjoy ourselves at the same time.
Pat Millar
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