A-Z Day 17: Orchestra

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at freedigitalphotos.net

Never let the educational tone of Growing Greenpatches be doubted! Today's fragrant offering from the virtual pot-pourri comes courtesy of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with their rendition of Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. 

Not so fragrant are several of the viewers'  comments. My apologies - why some people use the anonymity of the internet to be so unpleasant I'll never know.

After that little diversion - back to Britten. If you've never heard this piece before, you might be slightly confused as to  the composer. The piece is arranged  round a theme of Purcell, but is composed by Benjamin Britten. I guess it's familiar to many people of my age group; pieces like that formed a backdrop to my childhood. Never had the chance to take part in that particular piece, although as a teenager, I did get to play the handbells in a production of his Noyes Fludde.

The percussion section in Young Person did make me smile as I listened just now; more specifically - the triangle player. It brought back memories of taking part in Derek Bourgeois' Pied Piper. It takes guts and concentration I can tell you; split-second timing and manual dexterity (which I, at age 12 or so, definitely did not possess!) Trying to stop the wretched thing twirl round on its twirly thing, reverberate when it shouldn't, and to actually hit it bang on cue, is an art, I feel. A second's hesitation and one's moment of glory is gone, never to be repeated. Fan's of Blackadder, the final series, will remember poor old Baldrick's orchestral efforts here. I feel for him, poor soul. 

Happy listening.

Advent Calendar - This Little Babe

This little Babe so few days old,

Is come to rifle Satan's fold;

All hell doth at his presence quake,

Though he himself for cold do shake;

For in this weak, unarmed wise,

The gates of hell he will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field,

His naked breast stands for a shield;

His battering shot are babish cries,

His arrows made of weeping eyes,

His martial ensigns cold and need,

And feeble flesh his warrior's steed.

His camp is pitched in a stall,

His bulwark but a broken wall;

The crib his trench, hay stalks his stakes,

Of shepherds he his muster makes;

And thus as sure his foe to wound,

The Angels' trumps alarum sound.

My soul with Christ join thou in fight,

Stick to the tents that he hath dight;

Within his crib is surest ward,

This little Babe will be thy guard;

If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,

Then flit not from the heavenly boy.

            - From Robert Southwell's New Heaven, New War 

Here's another  favourite, one which has  spelt Advent to me ever since I first sung in Ceremony of Carols nearly 40 years ago. Listen here to Benjamin Britten's magical setting of This Little Babe.

Advent Calendar - Balulalow

O my dear heart, young Jesus sweet,

Prepare thy cradle in my spreit

And I sall rock thee in my heart

And never mair from thee depart.

But I sall praise thee evermore

With sangis sweet unto thy gloir

The knees of my heart sall I bow

And sing that richt Balulalow.

 Another  of my Christmas favourites - Balulalow, the version from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, performed here by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge.