Ruishton Play Day

7th July 2024

We had a goodly number for the July Play Day at Ruishton.

The main theme of the day was ‘classical’ music and several attendees brought suitable versions of well-known classics. 

In planned sessions, Paul McCann took us through his own arrangement of the ‘Hovis’ theme from Dvorak’s ‘New World’ symphony and Doug Watt ran a session on playing rounds and canons.

Small-group workshops generated performances of ‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’ from Holst’s ‘Planets’ (picture), extracts from three of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ and ‘The Hole in the Wall’ by Purcell.

In the individual’s Showcase slot we were treated to a duet from Tony & Diane on English concertinas of ‘Praise to the Mountain’ (picture), Chris Hammond played the ‘Trout’ on his duet, Doug Watt played a Bach violin movement on the anglo, Paul gave us a Swedish traditional tune on duet and John Lambert lightened the tone with ‘Java Jive’ on his English on the grounds (see what I did there…) that it also happened to be National Doughnut Day!

We also found time to have an open-floor discussion on the format and content of these Play Days and the organizing Committee will reflect on all the points arising.

The next WCCP ‘event’ will be the week of mornings at All Saints Church during the Sidmouth Folk Festival. This is an opportunity for Members and potential Members to try different systems and join in band groups and generally to enjoy and promote the WCCP in its core territory.