‘Mercury: The Winged Messenger’ is the third movement of The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. You can read all about The Planets in our Listening Guide. ‘Mercury: The Winged Messenger’ In Ancient Rome, the god Mercury was the winged messenger, taking messages from one god to another. This gives Holst the chance to compose some very fast music which jumps
‘Mars: The Bringer of War’ is the first movement of The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. You can read all about The Planets in our Listening Guide. ‘Mars: The Bringer of War’ ‘Mars’ starts with a repeated rhythm played by the strings – listen for the unusual tapping sound from them. For this opening, Holst asks all the string players
In June 2020 the OrchLab team had planned to run live workshops with Garwood Foundation and St Cecilia’s Leonard Cheshire centre, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic we took our workshops online instead. As part of these sessions we had a ‘Listening Party’ where we watched specially created videos of LPO musicians making music together
Originally written by Bill Withers and Skip Scarborough, this song became a firm favourite of OrchLab participants earlier in 2020, when we visited St Cecilia’s and Garwood Foundation. Lovely Day Join Kate (violin), Alice (oboe), Anne (trumpet), Dave (trombone) and Tom (double bass) and play and sing along! The words are included in the video
In June 2020 the OrchLab team had planned to run live workshops with Garwood Foundation and St Cecilia’s Leonard Cheshire centre, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic we took our workshops online instead. As part of these sessions we had a ‘Listening Party’ where we watched specially created videos of LPO musicians making music together
If you’ve explored the OrchMap, and already mastered the individual instrument quizzes, challenge yourself to be a master of orchestral knowledge! The quizzes below test your knowledge of all the OrchMap instruments combined. You can access the quizzes online, or if you prefer, you can download PDFs and fill out by hand, or use to
If you’ve explored the OrchMap, test your instrument knowledge by taking our quizzes! We have provided a range of quizzes on each instrument which you can access online, or if you prefer, you can download PDFs and fill out by hand, or use to test a group. If you’ve finished our individual instrument quizzes, or
When OrchLab visited Arnold House in March 2018, we used a piece of music by Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (his 7th Symphony, known as “Leningrad”) as our inspiration to create our own music. The Leningrad Symphony has four movements (sections). In the first movement, there is a very long section featuring a marching drum rhythm.
When OrchLab visited Arnold House in March 2018, we used a piece of music by Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (his 7th Symphony, known as “Leningrad”) as our inspiration to create our own music. We have used some of this music to make a “hello song”, and included some gaps for you to make music in