The Allegri Inspires Local Schools
Visits supported by Lord Gowrie and
the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund
All is not hunky dory in the Land of Song. Powys County Council disbanded its music services over a decade ago. Despite the annual Urdd (the under twenty-fives section of the Eisteddfod), without an instrumental/singing specialist on the teaching staff, or amongst the parents, a child's exposure to music education is often severely limited. Therefore the staff and children at Llanfechain primary school have been thrilled during the last two years to have the Allegri Quartet visiting them during the annual Llanfyllin Music Festival; thanks to generous help from both Lord Gowrie and the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund.
Llanfechain school with 40 pupils, is situated in rural north Powys; this was the Allegri's second visit there. Unfortunately, the juniors were visiting the National Eisteddfod at Llangollen so the quartet played to a very small group of infants, one class teacher and myself. We were highly honoured to have Bruno Schrecker playing the cello as, sadly, the quartet has now lost Pal Banda, their cellist for the last eight years.
Although all the children are now familiar with the sight and sound of the violin - I have been teaching at Llanfechain since last November - some were unfamiliar with viola and cello. Bruno made everyone laugh telling us that he chose to play the cello 'because it's much bigger' [than the violin] demonstrating its beautiful sound with the theme from Elgar's concerto. Next Raffy and Dot held up their instruments to demonstrate the difference in size between the viola and violin. Dot played the opening theme from Dvorak's String Quartet No 6 in F major, op.96 ('American') to demonstrate the viola sound and Ofer Falk played the string theme from Peter and the Wolf much to the excitement of one child who recognized the music.
"Why does a bigger instrument play lower notes?" somebody wanted to know.
"How do the strings make the music?" someone else asked.
After explaining and demonstrating the answers to these questions the quartet introduced the music.
They began with the opening of first movement Allegro non troppo from the 'American'. Rather rashly Raffy asked the children whether they thought it was 'day' or 'night' music. (There is always one child who will give a totally different response to the one you hope to elicit and sure enough someone did.) After several playings most of us agreed that it sounded like morning music and that the viola represented someone waking up and 'having a good scratch'. Next Raffy asked the quartet to play the opening again, once with chords instead of trills for the accompaniment, and then as written. He asked the children to think about which version they found most exciting and why. After this the quartet played some of the second movement Lento. A discussion about the mood of this movement led to one child saying:
"It makes me think of a baby animal crying for its mum."
The finale, Vivace ma non troppo, prompted very enthusiastic responses from the children.
"I think it's really exciting."
"I like it" said Mathew with a big beaming smile.
"I think it's like fairground music."
Next Raffy asked the quartet first to use legato instead of spiccato bowings then to play the original version and asked the children what sounded different. It took a few playings but eventually the children decided that 'it wasn't going along jumpy the first time' because of what the players were doing with 'their sticks'.
Last came the most popular part of the session. Raffy called for volunteers who were good at drawing triangles in the air getting them to 'conduct' the Scherzo from Beethoven's opus 18 no 4. James was delighted to discover that he could get them to play fast, slow, loud or soft. Poor Bruno looked rather bewildered at this point and afterwards was overheard to say:
"That was good fun but now I'm absolutely exhausted."
To end the session the quartet played the last section of the finale from the 'American'. Altogether the visit proved very successful. In the words of Mel Roberts, the class teacher:
'...the children thoroughly enjoyed the Allegri visit - I was really impressed by the way their attention was held throughout. The questions were pitched at just the right level for infants too. The only 'negative' comment was:
"I wish they would have played a tune all the way through."'
The idea of expanding the Llanfyllin Music Festival to include the Allegri making educational visits to local primary schools began in 2006. Since then several children have started violin. (When James Campbell joined the quartet to play the Mozart Clarinet Quintet the woodwind teacher at Llanfyllin primary netted a bumper crop of aspiring clarinetists.) Some of these children, with their parents, now make up part of the audience at the Llanfyllin Festival concerts. I hope, in future, that we can include a Master Class as a regular part of the Festival.
To conclude, following the quartet's equally successful visit to Llanfechain school in July 2007, six children took up the violin in November. Sadly, only three have been able to continue as we do not have enough violins to go round and not all parents can afford to buy instruments or make the sixty mile round trip to Shrewsbury in order to hire them. However the Llanfechain violinists made a successful debut during the end of year concert. With help from an older brother on the cello and me on the viola, we played a quartet arrangement of Sheila Nelson's Ringing Bell and Swingalong.
Finally, on behalf of the staff and pupils at Llanfechain school, and all the schools visited in 2007, I would like to say a big thank you to the Lord Gowrie and the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund for your part in making such visits possible.
Rebecca Bailey
Violin teacher based in Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant, North Powys