Manor House Music String Quartet Weblog

Corporate Dinner at Queens College, Oxford

On Thursday evening, it was our pleasure to return once more to play at Queens College in Oxford. Although we had performed as a string quartet last time, this time the occasion called for a string duo as it was a more intimate dinner of international delegates from a pharmaceutical company. With it’s high ceiling [...]

Wedding at Newland Hall

This Saturday we returned once again to Newland Hall to provide a string duo for a wedding service and reception. We entertained guests for an hour before the ceremony with a selection of classical pieces such as Greensleeves, an arrangement for duo of La Donna E Mobile and some lovely chamber duets by Pleyel, Mozart [...]

Pachelbels Canon in D for Weddings

No matter how large the size of a string quartets repertoire, or how many other music choices there are on offer - it’s probably true to say that 99% of brides who book a string quartet choose to walk up the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
So this week - in response to popular demand, we have recorded and [...]

Last minute weddings…..

Whereas over the last few years, we’ve usually found couples enquiring about a string quartet for their wedding several years in advance, with 2009 a year of financial uncertainty for many people, it seems that there’s a real trend at the moment for couples to put off booking a wedding until a few weeks beforehand- [...]

A busy bank holiday weekend….and a day in the life of a string quartet

It’s been a busy bank holiday weekend for us with three weddings, one was a wedding at Loseley Park near Guildford, the second wedding was at the Elvetham in Hampshire and a third (much nearer to home), was a wedding at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire.
All three had unique requests and in the case of the first two, [...]

Musicians Gallery….

Some of the weddings we enjoy playing  for most of all are those where the acoustics of the venue are such that quartet can really be heard during the wedding reception - and this weekend up in the musicians gallery at Kingscote Barn in Tetbury was a really good example.
A musicians gallery (or ‘minstrels gallery’) is a form of [...]

Mr Beveridge’s Maggot

We’re often asked whether we can play special requests for wedding ceremonies. Usually it’s a piece of particular significance for the couple getting married.
Yesterday, we played an arrangement of an old English folk tune which was used in the BBC production of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as well as the recent film adaptation of [...]