Wedding at Fawsley Hall, Northamptonshire
Last Wednesday 18th May the string quartet played for a wedding in the grand setting of Fawsley Hall located in the Northamptonshire countryside. As we were due to play in Knightley Hall as guests were arriving we arrived early to set up and find a place to store our cases. The venue helpfully brought us some armless chairs and we duly arranged our chairs to the left hand side of the central aisle.
Occasionally a wedding occurs on a busy date for musicians and despite contacting all of our viola players, this one fell on a date where they all had prior commitments. As a result I played viola (I normally play violin on all of the dates but regularly play the viola) and everything went smoothly. I didn’t realise how much difference sitting two chairs to the left of my normal position would make. The viola player is the engine of the entire group and is responsible for both blending and staying rhythmically accurate with both the cello and second violin. The player also needs to stay balanced in terms of volume - if he or she is even slightly too loud or quiet then it doesn’t end up sounding like a quartet but a group of individuals. It was an excellent insight into quartet playing (as the first violin often takes the lead and dictates the type of sound made) and one I would recommend to all groups!
After the ceremony we moved to the Great Hall and set up in a window alcove to entertain guests as they enjoyed drinks. When they eventually trickled out to go to the wedding breakfast we finished our contribution to the day.
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