Contents
Teachers’ Course...............2
BMG Ensemble...................3
Eurofestival Reviews.........4
Fretful Federation Trip......4
BMG Summer School..... 5-7
Moonlight Mandolins.........8
EGMYO..............................8
Meet the Orchestra............9
Music.........................10, 11
Origins of Guitar..............12
Book Review...................14
Eileen Pakenham.............14
CD Reviews.....................15
The American Mandolin...16
Banjo Technique..............17
Diary.........................18, 19
• President
Louis de Bernières
• Vice President
Dorothy Oram
• Editor
Barbara Pommerenke-Steel
01698 457518
[email protected]
• Assistant Editor and
Membership Secretary
Sandra Woodruff 0117 9672286
[email protected]
• Newsletter Design
Nigel Gatherer
• Website
www.banjomandolinguitar.org
2
Editorial
Welcome to our Autumn Newsletter
Dear Members,
Many great events have taken
place over the summer in which our
members were able to take part and
you will be able to read the reviews in
this newsletter.
Apologies that there have been
no instalments in Keith Harris’ ‘Which
Finger’ series in recent issues but they
will continue in future newsletters.
Nigel Gatherer has been in the
newsletter team for 7 years and has
done tremendous work; you just need
to pick up one of our newsletters to
see the professional way this is laid out
and the many design idea and logos
which he has added. Nigel’s work has
contributed greatly to the progress of
our Federation over the last years and
I would like to express my heartfelt
thanks to him for his commitment
throughout this long period. Due to
increasing work commitments Nigel
will be finishing his involvement in the
newsletter team and we are therefore
looking for someone to take over the
layout task – please see article in this
newsletter and get in touch if you think
you may be able to help.
British BMG Federation
Teachers’ Course
recordings. The 3 compositions are:
• Gigue in D Major by Craig Moran –
Score and Recording available
• MFO March by Chris Prior – Score only
available
• Three Romances by Richard Lathe –
Score and Recording available
Further to the announcement in the
summer newsletter, here are more
details of the BMG Federation Mandolin
Teachers Course 2014/15. The course
will consist of 4 weekends; the first
weekend is in October this year and
the three remaining weekends will be
held in January, March and May 2015.
Successful completion of the course can
lead to formal qualification as a Teacher
of Mandolin. Two of the weekends will
be held in The Abington Hotel in South
Lanarkshire, Scotland and two will be
held in the Cambridge Centre at Villiers
Park in Cambridge, England.
We are delighted to have secured
the services of Dr Stefanie Rauch as
lead tutor and she will be assisted
by Barbara Pommerenke-Steel and
myself, both of whom qualified through
previous BMG Federation Teachers’
courses.
The cost of tuition fees for the
course is £700.00 which can be paid
by instalments. Individuals who have
already expressed an interest have
been sent more detailed information
by email, but if anyone reads this item
and wishes to request more information
about the course, they should contact
me on [email protected] or
01698 424032.
Eddie Smith
Rally Contest 20 –
Compositions Available
It was suggested that the composition
entries for Contest 20, Ernest J. Tyrrell
Challenge Trophy, at this year’s BMG
Federation Rally be made available
to members. Following discussions
between Federation committee
members and the 3 contestants,
agreement was reached that
Federation members can have access
to the scores, and for 2 of them, the
Barbara
To obtain copies, contact Henry Girvan,
email: [email protected]
or tel: 01592 630374
Membership Numbers
Membership for 2013 was 269 and a
definite pattern has established since
2010 when the Rally booking form first
included the option to join the BMG
Federation so that participants could
take advantage of paying lower Rally
fees where a reduction was offered for
members. The effect of this has been
that the number of members increases
in a Rally year and drops off slightly
the following year, but to a level higher
than the previous non-Rally year, if this
makes sense! Have a look at the figures
below to see what I mean:
2014
295 (at end of July)
2013
269
2012
276
2011
249
2010
254
2009
248
2008
239
Some Rally participants join just
to pay member rate for concert,
workshops and contests and don’t
renew membership the following year.
Each year there is natural wastage due
to various reasons such as no longer
playing, cutting back on expenditure
etc, but the overall trend is that
the British BMG Federation is doing
exceedingly well and membership
numbers continue to rise.
Sandra Woodruff