Music in the vineyard

Type of post: Bloomsbury Music Group news item
Sub-type: No sub-type
Posted By: Marieke Muller
Status: Current
Date Posted: Sun, 2 Jul 2023
The clouds cleared and the sun showed its face as we all arrived in Eridge for our concert at Wildwood Vineyard. The strategic deployment of sun screen, sun hats, and plenty of parasols was welcome to the players and audience, as was the access to cold wine provided for purchase by Paul Oldwood - one of the Bloomsbury Band's clarinet players and owner of the vineyard! We performed songs with outdoorsy themes from our backlog, such as:
  • A selection of Tea Dances: a tango, fox trot, waltz, and charleston
  • Quand Je Bois: a crowd favourite with intermingling melodies
  • Norwegian Dance 2 (from 4) by Edvard Grieg - aka Opus 35, no. 2
  • King's Hunt, where both clarinets and flutes (woodwind instruments) were encouraged to sound like a brass ensemble
  • Wildwood Waltz, a piece composed and arranged by our Music Director following our first concert at Wildwood in 2021
  • A selection of sea songs set by Roger Cawkwell, a longtime collaborator of the band
  • We'll Gather Lilacs by Ivor Novello, from the Perchance To Dream musical
  • Leave Her Johnny, arranged for the band by Sarah Beardon - one of our flute players!
  • Song of the Blacksmith by Gustav Holst, enthusiastically accompanied on the anvil by Paul Oldwood himself
  • Feed the Birds, written by the Sherman Brothers for Mary Poppins
  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with brief solos for a siren, car horn, whistle, and vibraslap