by Ellen Mendoza

How is a recorder like a twirling baton?  Well, of course they are both longer than they are wide, meant for human fingers, and made to entertain, but the real answer is that they are both slaves to the will of Glen Shannon, our conductor for the April PRS playing session.

According to rumor, Glen is world reknown for the mastery of both, though we only had evidence of his recorder talents on Friday.  As well as his composing skills, and humor and, oh yeah, conducting. We did a pavan and galliard and funeral piece (note: do not play this at my passing - way too gloomy), then a processional by Eastman and then moved into Glen's compositions.  The first was a prelude and fugue, that was kinda like Bach, but not really.  Whatever, it was fun to play.  The finale was part of the Bloomberg Codex, which was kinda like what Glen Miller would play if he had to play recorders.  I have to admit that I failed to swing sufficiently for that last one, but it was exciting to try.  

The next day I went back for more with a lesson by Glen, during which he humored my denseness by describing in acute detail each articulation that was necessary to make a phrase sound like music.  However, the real breakthrough occurred when he applied his gift for physical expression to wave his arms to guide me through the mood of the piece. It seems to me that sometimes the notes stand in the way of the music.   More arm waving is in order.  Which gets me back to the twirling.

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This column needs volunteer writers...all styles, any point of view.  Please contact Zoe at pdxrecorders@comcast.net or let me know at the next playing session!