Christmas Crackers at the Bromley Guitar Society


Ahh! That time of the year....December and all the joys and stress of dealing with Christmas!!

Fortunately for the BGS Members there was time to escape from the shopping rituals to spend a jolly Saturday evening at St Marks getting right into the Christmas Spirit....amply supported by a great buffet courtesy of the members.


Denis and Christine kicked off the ensembles part of the evening, providing an array of Christmas Carols that in our somewhat less than reverent approach to the festive season. Still any passer by would have faintly recognised our rendering of 'Once in Royal David's City' culminating in a spirited if somewhat awkward rendition of 'Jingle Bells' which appeared to 'shift gears' in speed as the song progressed. All this without any accompaniment from Bromley's constabulary- which might have improved matters... Mind you I couldn't help feeling that Santa's reindeers would have had a bit of a fright!!

After a bit of convivial punishing of the buffet table we were then ready for the 'Christmas Cracker Awards' section of the evening- the SOLOS!!

Starting with Trevor's performance of 'Little Road to Bethlehem' finishing up with his rendition of the old Flanders and Swann favourite, 'In the Bath'. (For the benefit of ladies, children and members of the vice squad, I can assure you all that Trevor was fully clothed during his final number!!)

Other Christmas Crackers Awards went to

Will Punter: Off the Rails

Christine Dabrowa: Walking in the Air (Blake) and Oh Come all ye Faithfull'

Dave Hampton and Tom Rimmer : Choral Prelude Von Himmel Hoch

Rick Frenkel, Tom Rimmer and Ray Butcher: We wish you a Merry Christmas and Deck the Halls

Rob Sellery : Romance Number 1 ( Brunning); Capriccio Arabe (Tarrega) and Bagatelle 3 (Walton)

Tom Page: Choro1 Villa Lobos

Once more Vince has his sound pixies on the job and you will be able to hear the pieces for your selves. Click here to listen

A thoroughly great evening with lots of fun and laughter as it should be!

To compliment the Christmas Season, here is an online card from BGS TV. Please forgive the poor sound quality-the fault lies with my mobile phone not the players!!!







On behalf of the executive I would like to wish all BGS Members, non members and blog visitors a very merry Christmas and a Happy Music Enriched New Year!

Lute Society Updates


1. LUTENIST WANTED, HACKNEY, 6th DECEMBER

Lutenist wanted to play festive music with a Tudor theme during a craft fair at Sutton House in Hackney (built in 1535 and now belonging to the National Trust) on Sunday 6th December – exact time(s) negotiable between 11 am and 4pm. £30 fee plus unlimited mulled wine and mince pies! Please contact: lissa.chapman@btinternet.com

2. FEEDBACK WANTED – THE MEANINGS OF DOWLAND’S SONGS

The link below should take you to Rob McKillop's fledgling 'John Dowland website', where I allowed him to post pdfs of my paraphrases or 'explications' of all the Songs of JD.
http://www.johndowland.co.uk/ and click on 'Songs'.

Clifford Bartlett has been keen to publish these as a booklet, and I have been anxious to get members of the luting community to send me any errata, comments or downright criticism of them (I must have made some howling errors somewhere), but despite pleading with folk, I have had no serious feedback whatsoever! Everyone's too busy - I can understand that, but they need to be checked through thoroughly, and some of my conclusions or theories really should be questioned and challenged! Consider, for example, 'Come heavy Sleep' in book one, or 'Flow my Tears' in book 2, to both of which I have given footnotes relating to the mythological personifications referred to, and ideas from Cabalistic thought, Hermetic philosophy and Neo-Platonism. Am I correct in my conclusions? I think we should be told!

This Dowland text project originally came about as a kind of tribute to Bob Spencer. He always urged his students to explore the texts of lute songs in considerable depth, since they can often be quite 'dense' and opaque to the casual reader, and, in fact, most singers don't really have a clue what some of them are actually about, or referring to! I know - I was one of them


3. CONCERT, THURSDAY 3rd DECEMBER

Music from the courts of Henry VII and VIII, and from the pen of Henry Purcell, performed at the Lovekyn Chapel, Kingston Grammar School [opposite main school building], London Road, Kingston upon Thames KT2 6PYTickets: £8, £6 [concessiom] on the door; refreshments served,
Enquiries, reservations and requests to be left alone should be directed to williamsummers@uwclub.net