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SinfoniaConnect
Music
is often influenced by its historical, social and political context and
inspired by many external stimuli, from the artistic to the practical,
as well as by music of other composers.
There
is evidence that music can support
learning in other spheres, as well, of course, as
bringing pleasure, intellectual stimulation and sometimes emotional solace
to listeners.
At Britten Sinfonia, we're
always looking for new ways for our audiences to find out more about us
and the music we play. The new
SinfoniaConnect section on our website is a place to explore connections
between music and other art forms and disciplines. On this page,
you can find a video exploring practical connections between visual arts
and music, an interactive music and languages game, information on our
journeys around the world, and links to external sites with more information
about music.
Drawing
on Music
On
Saturday 9 February 2008 we held the first in what we hope will be a series
of workshops exploring the connections between music and visual arts.
The Saturday Drawing group at Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge was joined
by oboist Nicholas Daniel and artist Auriol Herford to explore techniques
and concepts common to both art forms.
The
workshop began with breathing exercises, helping the participants to experience
the intense connections between movement, breath and body which are so
important to wind players. The artists then moved on to a series of quick
drawings made in response to Nicholas’ performances of one of Benjamin
Britten’s Metamorphoses after Ovid. As he reported afterwards, the drawings,
often starkly beautiful, the sounds of charcoal on paper and the atmosphere
of concentrated creativity in the room all influenced Nicholas’ playing
as he repeated the piece.
Download
a video of the workshop (requires Quicktime)
Watch video on YouTube
Music
and languages
Why is it that some people
who are good at music are also good at languages? Research
suggests that music, language, speech and singing are closely linked from
the earliest stages of development.
Can music help us to learn
languages? In preparation for Britten Sinfonia's tour to South
America, we learned some Spanish and Portuguese. To help us remember
the words we devised a new interactive game. Test your
musical and linguistic skills by clicking the link below:
Around the world
As part of our tour to South
America, we found out some information about music and instruments
in Brazil, Argentina
and Uruguay, as well
as uncovering some facts and figures about these countries.
Now that we've got the travel
bug, we're planning some more foreign tours. Keep checking our map
of the world to find out
Links
If you want to find out more
about music and musicians, the SoundJunction
website is a fantastic and ever-growing resource.
And you might see some familiar faces whilst you're there.
You can listen to Britten Sinfonia playing David Horne's Emerging
Dances, and find out all sorts of information
about the piece.
You can also see videos of lots
of our musicians:
Budding instrumentalists can
find out how Ben
Chappell got started on the cello, what made Joy
Farrall take up the clarinet, and why Clare
Finnimore switched from violin to viola. You can also
listen to Emma
Feilding's tips on practising.
If you want to know more about
the instruments themselves, watch Simon
Gunton as he introduces the many and varied characters
of the trombone; find out from Miranda
Dale how a violin bow works; or see Steve
Williams show you the bigger equivalent on the double
bass.
And anyone interested in a
musical career can find out about what it's like for percussionist David
Hockings and harpist Lucy
Wakeford. Finally, bassoonist Gareth
Twigg dishes the dirt on what it's really like to
play for Britten Sinfonia!
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