BY MARY CUNNINGHAM

Published at 11:07, Thursday, 19 January 2012

PRESIDENT Josie Watson welcomed 16 members to the September meeting.

in action: Anthony Payne

Josie introduced the speaker, Anthony Payne. Mr Payne is a former teacher of linguistics at St Bees School, but it was his position as a percussionist with several orchestras that we were to hear about.

He was asked to join a small orchestra in 1984 and he explained that carrying three large tympani drums deters would-be percussionists. There are three things needed in music, he explained – melody, harmony and rhythm – and he played several excerpts to illustrate this point.

He started with a slow polka by Strauss which had two beats to the bar, then a waltz with three beats to the bar, continuing up to a Leonard Bernstein piece with seven beats to the bar.

He brought several instruments which come under the ‘percussion’ umbrella: castanets, rattles, maracas, tambourine etc. At the end of his very enjoyable talk we were all more knowledgeable about percussion and will certainly listen to a piece of music with a different ear.

The competition for a ‘posy from the hedgerow’ was won by Gill Peel; Margaret Griffiths and Christine Sharp came second and third.

Two representatives from Age UK then gave a talk about their newly-created positions as ‘village agents’. Dawn Smith and Zara O’Callaghan are based at the Bradbury Centre in Millom but will travel out to rural locations to inform isolated residents of the services offered by Age UK.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk