Oxford Chamber Course: Cara (11)

Oxford Chamber Course: July 2021

The course started with getting to know each other. I wasn't sure what to expect but was excited to be there. I was on the introductory course and I found out that each day we would have a workshop and play in a whole group ensemble and two chamber quartets where we would be rehearsing for a concert on the last day.

In the group ensemble we played part of ‘Concerto VIII’ by Corelli which was really nice but you had to count carefully as it was such a slow piece. The other piece we played was ‘The Liberty Bell' by John Philip Sousa which was pretty tricky with lots of different finger positions and quite fast, but it was really jolly, cheerful and upbeat.

I was surprised when I realised that an orchestra has so many different parts. I learned that there could be first, second and even third violins, cello soloists and a ripieno, and you can have even more instruments than that. I also generally enjoyed just playing with other people. I had played with others before, but not so many and probably not so well.

It was fun working in chamber groups because the pieces were really lively, it was easier to work on your own individual sections and in one of the pieces I got to pluck a funky, syncopated bit of blues-like tune. I was amazed, too, when one of our chamber group teachers said that she knew the person who had written one of the pieces we played. We played ‘Salut d'Amour’ by Elgar and Tchaikovsky's ‘Neapolitan Song’ in the Jennings Quartet and in the Larkhill Quartet we played ‘Kookaburra’ by Marion Sinclair (the person who the teacher knew) and ‘Aire’ from ‘Abdelazer’ by Henry Purcell. My favourite two were ‘Kookaburra’ and ‘Neapolitan Song’ because they were funky and I had lots to play in them.

The workshops were about Alexander Technique, looking after our instruments, conducting, and Boomwhackers. The workshop on Alexander Technique was interesting. I never knew that when you bend your head over your neck it carries the equivalent of 35kg!

It was important to learn how to keep our instruments in good condition and interesting to see the different parts of instruments closer up. I did not know that you could have so many different types of tuning pegs, including ones called ‘pegheads' and could replace almost all of the parts of your instrument.

 It was fun trying out conducting. We conducted four musicians and they would do everything you asked straight away. We learned how to make them stop and start, play louder and quieter, faster and slower and also conduct in duple, triple and quadruple time. It was exciting trying it out on a real quartet too.

I enjoyed the Boomwhackers workshop because I have never done anything like it and I liked the piece we played. It was ‘My Favourite Things' by Richard Rodgers which is in ‘The Sound of Music', one of my favourite films.

Overall, the Oxford Chamber Course was really interesting and exciting. It was exciting to perform in the concert at the end and I learned so much. Thank you to Hidersine and the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund for giving me a bursary.