Hmmm, so I seem to have signed up for a seminar..., Moeck seminar, Celle Options

[RoseRodent]

Between myself and my German friend we registered me for an event, is anyone going or has ever been? The website is strangely silent on all forms of detail! http://www.moeck.com/cms/index.php?id=11 (I forget the links policy for each website I visit, hopefully this is OK as it doesn't sell anything... it is, however, entirely in German). It doesn't say if all the pieces are to be prepared or you join one and stick with it for the day, and if so how this is allocated - not sure if they will allocate me to a group or I get to choose. Frankly the sole reason I am considering flying to Germany at short notice is to fulfil a life-long dream to perform Brandenburg Concerti and the day gets me two of them and I will cry if they try to make me play anything else. I hope I hear something else before the day kicks off otherwise I'll be turning up in a strange town with a bunch of recorders wondering what is going on.

Oh, and I don't speak German, but let that not be an obstacle to my aspirations to play this music - what could possibly go wrong? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[anacrusis]

Ooh, sounds like fun: so what you've got there is arrangements for recorder ensemble, to play the various pieces mentioned, the Bach arranged by Saskia Coolen, who is a very erudite and interesting teacher (and by someone else too, it's just that I know Saskia) and...it looks as if Peer Gynt is still in preparation. I've played a recorder adaptation of Brandenburg 4 - well sort of Brandenburg 4 - in its reconfiguration in F, where the harpsichord takes the solo violin part. More annoyingly the harpsi also gets the lovely cadenza in the middle movement normally played by the first recorder in the G version (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif). It does say you need to be able to sightread well, and to be able to play at least two sizes of recorder, and he mentions specifically that some of the rhythmic demands on players are also sizeable. They do make the parts available on their site to let people see ahead of time, and the evening session with Brandenburg 3 is for advanced and secure players...having tried to play a version of the latter, and landed the bass part, which is fiendish for the cellos in the original....I'd certainly be wanting to listen to that rather than attempt it!

Recorder orchestra music isn't really my first choice way of playing BUT - playing Bach like that is amazing and I would heartily recommend it - I think I got a viola line to play in BB4, and sitting listening to the counterpoint from a different part of the music to the one I'd played before was fascinating - it opens out even more of what the music does, because with the best will in the world, I find it very hard not to lock onto one line for bars at a time when listening. The same is happening at the moment in the orchestra I'm playing in: we're doing a two-choir piece we've done before but I'm in the other choir to last time and on a different instrument, and the change in perspective is great (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif).

The language difficulty I'm less sure of - but then, I've two languages and tend to expect of myself to understand, so get very uptight when in countries where I can't communicate properly. Bart, being Belgian, will probably have some English, but you'll also perhaps be able to pick up a fair amount from context. Would it be worth at least learning numbers in German, to give you bar numbers for your cues when rehearsing? Annoyingly they're all backwards from twenty upwards - so four and twenty, not twenty four....makes writing phone numbers down a real headache cos they dictate them in pairs, but could also send you to the wrong place if you're not aware of that. Vier und neunzig = ninety four....

[Dripdrip]

It definitely looks like fun. Hopefully your German friend can help with the language, if you're sticking together. But I would second Anacrusis and suggest that you learn some basics - counting, note names, note lengths and rest values - before you go.

[Halka]

Bart, being Belgian, will probably have some English

I have seen his name on the list of tutors for the Lyme Regis recorder courses, so I assume his English is fine.