Picture courtesy West Sussex County Times
Who
are we, and why New
Harmonie?
The
members of New
Harmonie, which is based at Horsham in West
Sussex, share an enthusiasm for performing and promoting
wind ensemble music.
New Harmonie
is a non-profit-making company limited by guarantee and
a registered charity. ‘Harmonie’ is a term commonly
used in Germany and France for an ensemble of wind instruments.
In Mozart’s day, Harmonie groups comprising pairs
of oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns (flutes were added
later) gave performances and provided background music for
their patrons at the great European courts as well as playing
in public places. ‘New’ because we play music
from the 18th to 21st century, including new compositions
and arrangements of music not originally intended for this
combination (such as Abba, Beatles, Billy May, Glen Miller
and Duke Ellington).
The
Ensembles
DECET
and OCTET
Between June 1999 and March 2004, the decet gave between
three and five concerts each year. Venues included “The
Capitol” Horsham, “The Hawth” Crawley,
“The Landmark Centre” Teddington, “The
Arts Centre” Cranleigh and “Chequer Mead”
East Grinstead . With funding from South East Arts, New
Harmonie has commissioned new works for wind by Dominic
Sewell, Liz Lane and Ben Pope. One of the largest projects
was “Why cats sit on doorsteps in the sun” (The
Capitol, Horsham 9.11.03) a children’s music/dance
project from Liz Lane . With funding from Youth Music, another
major project was “The Wisdom of the Animals”
(The Capitol, Horsham 7.3.04) by Ben Pope with lyrics by
Ges Lonsdale. This brought senior players and members of
a junior quintet together to form an ensemble of fifteen
and a specially recruited choir of over seventy children
from rural junior schools in mid-Sussex.
"Courtesy
Mark Dean"
Since
the summer of 2004, New
Harmonie as taken the decet on tour to some
of the excellent village halls and churches in Sussex ,
including Ashington, Ferring, Southwater, Cuckfield, Littlehampton,
Scaynes Hill, Wick, Billingshurst, Mannings Heath, St Marks
Church Horsham. The group made a demonstration CD (clips
are available on this web site) of studio and concert recordings
to accompany invitations for venues to promote the group,
as well as to send to funding bodies. A typical programme
of music includes pieces from the classical repertoire during
the first half to be followed by music from the shows (eg
South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof) and more modern arrangements
by Ben Pope (eg medleys of songs by Abba, the Beatles, Billy
May, Glen Miller and Duke Ellington). Arrangements of music
(with narration), such as “Hansel and Gretel”,
“Peter and the Wolf” and “ St Leonard
and the Dragon of Horsham”, are part of the move to
attract younger audiences. Works for octet are sometimes
included in these concerts.
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| New
Harmonie
Octet
Courtesy Mark Dean |
New
Harmonie
Decet
Courtesy Mark Dean |
QUINTET
and SEXTET
In 2005, to commemorate the
60th anniversary of the end of World War Two, and with lottery
funding from Home Front Recall, New Harmonie commissioned
Ben Pope to arrange some of the familiar songs from 1939-45
for quintet, and Ges Lonsdale to write the words for a commentary
linking the music and telling the story of the war. Fourteen
village halls and churches in Sussex and Surrey agreed to
promote these concerts.
“The
World War Two Quintet"
THE
STORY OF WORLD WAR TWO IN WORDS ILLUSTRATED BY MUSIC
FROM THE PERIOD
Although the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 has
passed, we are continuing this hugely successful series
of concerts. If your Village Hall or Church would
like to promote this concert please get in touch with
Dr Geoffrey Richardson 01403 242429.
Funding may be available to support your promotion. |
The quintet can
be extended to a sextet by the addition of a pianist, allowing
the group to play music composed for piano and five wind instruments.
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| New
Harmonie Quintet |
New Harmonie
Sextet |
QUARTET
AND TRIO
The Music Library of New
Harmonie is extensive and includes music
for all combinations of the wind instruments in our ensemble.
A quartet of flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon has given
a series of morning coffee concerts in residential homes.
These have developed into exercise and singing sessions
and, more recently, became part of a project working with
nursing staff and physiotherapists in hospitals. In another
venture, working with “Generations as Partners”,
New Harmonie ran a workshop with children from a Junior
School , inviting residents from a local home to form the
audience.
"Courtesy
Mark Dean" |
Generations as Partners |
New
Harmonie
commissioned Ben Pope to set John Browning’s poem
“The Pied Piper of Hamelin” to music for oboe,
clarinet and bassoon. This was performed in concert on several
occasions. With funding especially from South East Arts,
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Barclays Bank, the trio with
a narrator/workshop leader has also run music/drama workshops
based on the “Pied Piper” in Sussex rural junior
schools involving 2,500 children.
“Pied
Piper music/drama workshops”
children taking part in the Pied Piper of Hamelin
music drama workshops
"Courtesy
Mark Dean"
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With
funding from Awards for All, New
Harmonie
recently commissioned Ges Lonsdale to write the story
of St Leonard and the Dragon of Horsham in verse and
Ben Pope to set this to music for oboe, clarinet and
bassoon with narrator. This is the sequel to the Pied
Piper and music/drama workshops were successfully
run for ten packs of local Brownies in after-school
activities. Further funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation
enabled about 600 more children in 10 Horsham Junior
Schools to take part in this heritage project.
Click
on the picture left for a larger image |
ANIMAL
MAGIC
A trio (oboe, clarinet and bassoon) has also completed a
tour of 15 special schools with a music/drama workshop “Animal
Magic”. This involved 350 children. The players regarded
working with these children as a real privilege and having
the three instruments ‘live’ in the classroom
overcame many communication problems.
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New
Harmonie trio playing at the Grand Ball |
The
children wearing masks at the Grand Ball |
THE
GRAND BALL
The Local Network Fund awarded a grant for music/drama workshops
in four Special Schools (Ingfield Manor, Queen Elizabeth
II, St Piers (NCYPE) and High Down Worthing). Three players
(oboe, clarinet, bassoon) ran four consecutive morning sessions
in each school using specially composed music by Ben Pope
to illustrate the story of the Grand Ball, focussing upon
musical notes of different values: quavers, crotchets and
minims.
MINIBEASTS
and THE CIRCUS
The
Local Network Fund awarded another grant for a quartet to
run two six week projects in Worthing Palatine School and
St Joseph ’s School Cranleigh. The addition of a flute
provided more musical colour. Both projects aimed at supporting
work that the school would be doing anyway as part of the
National Curriculum. The projects were a great success and
New Harmonie is sorry that the Local Network Fund scheme
is coming to an end.
Reviews
in the Press
-Sept-07.gif)
“New
Harmonie returned to Horsham after four years touring to
give a concert in St Marks Church on Sunday September 30th.
It was a brilliant performance by this very talented group
of musicians supported by the West Sussex Arts Partnership.
There was something in the programme to suit a wide range
of musical tastes including a specially commissioned arrangement
of Peter and the Wolf by Ben Pope where each player shared
in telling the story. There were selections from the classical
wind repertoire as well as music from the theatre and swing
from Duke Ellington. Wind playing was shown off at its best
in the splendid acoustic of the church and it was amazing
to watch how the group without a conductor achieved the
right balance, played with precision and accomplished smooth
changes of tempo. It was encouraging to see so many children
in the audience”.
Sarah Mullan,
West Sussex County Times (WSCT)
CONCERT
BY NEW HARMONIE BILLINGSHURST VILLAGE HALL OCTOBER 15th
2006
“I
saw Denise Campbell’s entry on the Billingshurst Community
web site last week, then a couple of posters around the
village and on Friday I read the extensive cover in West
Sussex County Times about this special concert to celebrate
Mozart’s 250th anniversary. I had never been to a
concert in the village hall and I had never heard New Harmonie
perform. Last Sunday turned out to be a lovely day and I
almost stayed at home to work in the garden. I am so glad
that I didn’t.
I
have never heard Mozart’s Gran Partita for 13 instruments
but it is described as the ‘jewel in the crown of
his wind music’. Beautiful melodies, rich harmony
and the wonderful combination of sounds produced by instruments
that you would normally not hear on their own but rather
with strings and brass in a symphony orchestra. There were
two oboes, two clarinets, two basset horns, two bassoons,
four horns and a double bass. The sheer majesty of the sound
when all thirteen were playing forte was spine tingling
helped by the fine acoustic in the hall. This contrasted
with the delicate, quiet passages when the players exerted
wonderful control over their instruments especially in one
of the slow movements (used in the film Amadeus) where Mozart’s
love for Constanze was probably the inspiration. A symphonic
opening, minuets and trios, beautiful adagios and a rumbustious
finale – all quite superb. Lasting about 45 minutes,
it is a very taxing piece for wind players. The ensemble
played quite brilliantly. I didn’t want it to end
and I could have sat through a repeat performance.
However
this wasn’t just a concert. Before the interval, Margaret
Lynn treated us to a delightful exposition of the piece
illustrated by snippets played by the ensemble. It was a
lovely idea to do this and Dr Lynn is clearly very knowledgeable
about Mozart’s life and the structure of this Gran
Partita.
The
garden can wait. This was a unique opportunity to hear this
rarely performed work and I am very pleased that I was there.”
Gordon
Robinson (WSCT)
“This
brilliant ensemble entertained us with ‘something
old, something new’ ranging from snippets of the classics
to selections from South Pacific and an arrangement of several
Abba songs. Geoff Richardson provided an entertaining commentary
between the pieces and built up a great rapport with the
audience… In the second half the première of
a piece by Ben Pope ‘The Wisdom of the Animals’
…four songs (from around the world) expressing a universal
morality…for three wind quintets …(a choir of)
over 60 inexperienced primary school children from all over
Sussex ….it was a hit…an experience the children
will not forget – and nor will the audience.”
Robert
Woodward WSCT
Picture courtesy West Sussex County Times
“How to do this amazing concert justice in two hundred
words? Impossible but I'll try. First of all, the theatre
was sold out. The audience ranged from grandparents to toddlers
who are ....the audience of the future. The first half was
a punchy selection from the wind ensemble New Harmonie -
all played with the group's trademark style and panache
allied to excellent individual technique. "Why Cats
Sit on Doorsteps in the Sun" ...was quite simply brilliant!
Wondferfully evocative and memorable music from New Harmonie;
extraordinarily effective characterisation and choreography
by Malarkey; stunning costumes by Sharon Davey; and as for
the children - well, they were simply fantastic" Jane
Thomas WSCT ( 14.11.03)
"Courtesy
Mark Dean"
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Pictures
courtesy West Sussex County Times
“A full house enjoyed a sparkling performance
from this exciting group of musicians on a hot summer’s
afternoon.” (Charles Trevelyan WSCT 25.7.03)
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A
quartet from …New
Harmonie…gave a morning concert at Maidenbower
Day Care Centre in Crawley…Jennie Reed, the day care
centre manager said “ Wonderful music and lots of
interactions with members. It took away the Monday morning
blues and was a lovely way to start the week (West Sussex
Gazette 26.6.03)
“…a New Harmonie
trio ran two music workshops for the children at St Joseph’s
Special School Cranleigh…each instrument taking on
the character of the animals…and the room was full
of the sounds of young people making music” (West
Sussex County Times 18.7.03)
