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… students of A level and GCSE Music at Radley College were instructed simply to compose a piece, 3 minutes in length, for a Piano Trio… It was then announced that the Trio were coming to Radley to do a composition workshop, and after having heard their most impressive performance of the Beethoven and Shostakovich Trios a few weeks earlier, we felt somewhat intimidated by our inferiority… However, they arrived; the Violinist dressed in quirky Bohemian attire, all of them giving off a friendly, interesting and helpful vibe. They broke down some pieces for us such as Shostakovich’s Trio and showed us various simple ways to create an impressive-sounding, musically advanced piece, the most useful of which was the idea of a Passacaglia; a simple pattern of chords which increases in complexity over the piece. Ways of creating tension, suspense, conflict etc. were made apparent to us, in addition to the range of the various instruments - introducing many to the possibility of the wonderful tenor sound created by use of high cello writing. They highlighted the range of techniques available too, including playing below the bridge, playing with the wood of the bow, as well as more obvious ones such as pizzicato and tremolo. We left the room feeling much better, even inspired in my case, about a coursework project which now looked manageable. The problem in composition is getting started. Once you’re started it becomes a lot easier, and the most helpful thing the Trio did was to set us off on a good note … and let us use our own creative imaginations to do the rest. On their return a few months later, we had either finished or almost finished our work, and had become accustomed to hearing it played back with less than authentic sounding MIDI noises, so when the Angell Trio arrived…it was like hearing a completely different piece of music. The sensitivity and musicality with which they played, despite often inadequate performance directions, was inspirational. They gave some helpful pointers to add the icing to the cake… It was their helpfulness, friendliness, professionalism, immense skill and constant good humour that made the project such an enjoyable and rewarding experience, and thanks to the Angell Trio for all their help!!!
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