Music creator Finn McLean talks about their collaboration with the Glasgow Community Concert Band as part of Adopt a Music Creator 2024. ...
Rebecca Demott of the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble (BWAFE) relates her group's first workshop with music creator Edgar Divver, as part of their collaboration for Adopt a Music Creator 2022.
Today, members of BWAFE met Edgar, our adoptive music creator, face-to-face for the first time. Storm Eunice had tried her best but fallen fences and trees along the way didn't manage to disrupt our plans.
The aim of the morning was for us to get to know each other better and start to workshop some sounds, based on Edgar's creative theme for the suite (more on that later).
After a chat and a cuppa - plus comparisons on who had witnessed the most storm carnage on the journey in - Edgar and Jenni, our Making Music mentor, took us through some intro exercises. While these seemed aimed at warming us up (quite literally as the heating wasn't on at that point), Jenni explained afterwards that they give a real insight into how we work together as a group - how we listen to each other and interact. We ran through a rhythmic clapping exercise, and provided a lively soundtrack to a walk through the Antarctic - complete with creaking doors, wind, huskies and penguins (what sound DOES a penguin make?).
Edgar leading the rehearsal
Once the laughter had died down, it was time to get the flutes out and rehearse a piece we've been working on for just a few weeks: Smetana's 'Dance of the Comedians' from The Bartered Bride. Liz led this as a 'normal' rehearsal, giving Edgar the chance to listen in and move around the room to hear the different flutes and players. It's a fast piece with lots of shifting dynamics and contrasting sections, so a good example of the different sounds we can make together. Kudos to Annette who sight-read the piccolo part, which isn't easy!
We stopped for cake - and more tea. We have some brilliant bakers in the group so there were some tough decisions to make, but we coped!
'These are: Elephant's Breath, Citron, Green Smoke, Borrowed Light and Earth Red. Edgar explained how both the names and the shades themselves make you feel a certain way that can be translated into music.'
Then it was over to Edgar, who revealed the theme for our future suite. While deciding how to decorate his house, he had picked up on the weird and wonderful names given to shades of paint, and selected five for us, along with a colour swatch. These are: Elephant's Breath, Citron, Green Smoke, Borrowed Light and Earth Red. Edgar explained how both the names and the shades themselves make you feel a certain way that can be translated into music. Edgar has made it clear from the beginning that this composition is very much a collaboration and that our ideas, thoughts and opinions would be taken through into the final suite - so now he put us to work.
We split into groups, took a shade each and worked together on the sort of sounds and notes that we felt represented it - just a short burst - and played it back to the wider group, with Edgar recording them all to listen back to later. Many of us haven't done anything like that before but some of the sounds we came up with were pretty impressive! It also freed us up to be a bit adventurous - as our musical director Liz pointed out, if we'd been presented with these as sheet music, we would have found them too difficult, and definitely not our usual style.
Drawing inspiration from the 'Borrowed Light' shade
It was a rewarding, fun morning and we really achieved something together. We'll be spending our next few rehearsals working on our entry for the Bedfordshire Festival of Music and Drama, but will be putting in a date to catch up with Edgar and Jenni soon, and are excited to see what Edgar will have for us by then.
Read music creator Edgar Divver's blog on their first meeting
Follow the Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble on Facebook / Twitter
The Adopt a Music Creator project matches vocal and instrumental leisure-time music groups with some of the UK’s most promising music creators to collaborate on creating a new piece of music. The project leads to a premiere performance and possible broadcast. If you’re a music group or music creator and you’d like to take part, find out more.
