Four Parishes Arts Society - December 2009

Meeting held on 10 November at Grateley Hall

The meeting opened on rather a sad note when condolences were sent to Renate West on the death of her husband Len and Veronica Bacon on the death of her life long partner John Heeks.  Both these ladies have served on the Society’s committee and given their unstinting support along with Len and John.

Secondly:  Apologies from myself, Chairman, JoseTaylor, to Shirley Hayward for recording her Christian name wrongly when I gave the committee members’ names in my report for October.  The Committee welcomes Shirley as a new member along with Joan Bryant.

The Society’s new programme for the year went off with a swing when we were entertained by:

Suzanne Webber : “Sounds Of The Keyboard”

Suzanne is an accomplished pianist and accordion player and has already entertained the Society on her accordion.  Tonight it was the turn of the piano.

Suzanne started the evening by giving a brief history of the piano: the organ preceded the piano and from the organ evolved the accordion.  In the early days, music was mainly heard in the churches and cathedrals and then spread to drawing room recitals and eventually into the large concerts halls.  She talked about two of what Howard Goodall has called “the big bangs” of music as they affected the development of the keyboard, namely the Double-escapement action and Equal Temperament which made possible the piano as we know it today.

Suzanne entertained us to a variety of music from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in C Minor, which she described as “A Musical Conversation”, to Martha Mier’s lively “Jackson Street Blues”.  Her objective was to demonstrate the immense variety of sounds that can be obtained from different styles of piano music. Before Suzanne played each piece of music, she gave us an insight into its composition and history.  She also pointed out that different pianists playing the same piece on the same piano can sound quite different because it is all down to the pianist’s ‘touch’ and interpretation.

Once again Suzanne’s piano playing was much enjoyed and we look forward at some time in the future to her return.

Future Event : 
Tuesday 8 December – Skittles Evening at The White Hart , Stoke, at 7.00 p.m.
This event is being subsidized by the Society, so for a very enjoyable evening with a very good two course traditional buffet, the cost is only: £5 per member and £5 for one guest per member.  Additional guests £10 each.  Application forms are enclosed with your new 2009/10 progamme so please let Joan Bryant have your cheque by 2 December