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Local music teacher Sarah Minns was thrilled with the recent launch of the Glasshouse Community Choir, which had an incredible start with a turnout of 33 people for the first choir gathering on Wednesday, May 22. Sarah said it was wonderful to see a broad mix of people turn up. “I was so chuffed with the turnout. It was a fun night and everyone seemed to be smiling,” she said. “We had a real spread of ages from 17 to around 80 years old and a mix of men and women. We even had a guitarist come out of the woodwork and he's offered to play at some of our practises, which is fantastic,” Sarah said. The night featured a variety of songs chosen to appeal to a cross section of tastes. They included Edelweiss (from ‘The Sound of Music’), For the Longest Time (Billy Joel), When You Say Nothing at All (Ronan Keating), Shallow (Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga from ‘A Star is Born’), Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Annie Lennox style), Loch Lomond (traditional) and Let it Be (Beatles). Sarah’s plan is to start working on some harmonies to take advantage of the vocal range of the participants and to look at songs in a bit more detail. She hopes that the momentum continues for this wonderful community choir initiative and is keen to attract a few more instrumentalists to accompany them. The community choir is open to everyone - young, middle-aged and older adults alike. There is no need for participants to read music or to have previous experience. The group meets weekly on Wednesday evenings at the Glass House Mountains Neighbourhood Centre from 6.30-7.45pm. There will be no cost to participate and a variety of music styles will be explored to suit the group as it evolves. New members are welcome to just turn up on a Wednesday evening.
with Dr Michael Whiticker
Music Today
The power of a great musical arrangement Having been a composer all my life, I have a special affinity with arranging, which is taking a piece of music, generally in its barest form, and realising its full potential by adding various instruments and organising them to achieve a maximum effect. It is also known as instrumenting or orchestrating. It is an intriguing art - first year composition students cut their teeth on orchestrating the solo works of Ravel and Bach, for example, for any range of instruments. The form it takes for me today also assumes a production role as I generally take a song, for which only a verse and chorus might exist - usually played on guitar, and I will add parts - keyboards, bass, drums, other guitars and strings, for example, and record the finished product. It can be very satisfying, especially if the song is a good one. One tends to have favourite artists and albums, and I vacillate from one to the other, but an act I often come back to is The Civil Wars, both for the quality of their performances and their arrangements. The producer of their albums is the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Charlie Peacock and he was an essential part of the studio sound they created. He noted that his role was to support the power and passion of their acoustic performances with the addition of atmospheric ambiences. For most arrangers this wouldn’t be enough but Peacock, assuming more of a producer’s role, realises a superb palette with his subtle additions. That said, you will hear acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars, mandolin, bass, string quartet, piano, organ, some synth pads and the occasional drum set on the albums, so he does extend his atmospheric licence. Listen to the album version of the The Civil Wars’ spine tingling performance of the great Smashing Pumpkins song ‘Disarm’. Peacock moves it from a delicate guitar and mandolin opening to a beautifully spare first chorus at 1.09 with the introduction of a warm string-like synth pad. When working with singers the class of the two in this duo, one has to let them sing unencumbered by dense instrumentation. However, with the second verse at 2.10 the muscle of the arrangement starts to exert itself and in the second chorus at 2.54 we face a massive dynamic assault driven by a relentless rhythm guitar and the song climaxes with the stirring harmonies of the singers stretched to their utmost. All that can be left after such an outpouring is a reference to the most delicate of guitars that is heard at the opening, and the song dies with a single voice. Michael has a recording studio in Peachester. If you would like to find out more contact him on 0419 026 895 or E: mwhitick@bigpond.net.au
Glasshouse Country & Maleny News
