I thought that members might be interested in the following. I have custody of some of the viols made by Arthur Marshall for the purpose of using them to introduce people to viol playing and recently was asked by the family of John Austin to keep two of his viols (left to NWEMF) for the same purpose. I have been using all these at summer schools, Cumbrian Recorder Society days and the occasional private lesson.
I wanted to get young people playing and have been trying to get schools interested but so far drawn a blank. However, last year I was asked to play some solo lyra viol sequences in two concerts given by a Cumbrian choir. At the end of the second, one of the choir members came up and said that he ran the Saturday Cockermouth Music Centre and would I be interested in teaching the viol to children.
Following an after-school try out and lots of discussions about practicalities, insurance etc we now have five children between the ages of 9 and 13 learning the viol; one of John’s, two of Arthur’s and the two NWEMF treble viols – these last hastily borrowed because some of the children are so small that they couldn’t manage the tenor viols I had ready. We also had an interesting time sorting how to cope with primary aged children managing on the secondary school chairs – their feet couldn’t reach the ground and improvised footstools were necessary! The children are making good progress and our spot in the Music Centre Christmas concert was a triumph.
Elizabeth Dodd
Published in February 2015 Newsletter
