12 Sep Les Délices Gets Playful
What is LD@Play?
Les Délices has a series of a dozen or so outreach programs that happen all over town, all season long. These include LD @ Work (open rehearsals), LD Steps Out (free community performances), and LD @ Play (family concerts)
A young listener at a recent LD @ Play performance
Our LD@Play Family Concerts are designed for children aged 5-12 and their families and caregivers. Led by professional musicians playing period instruments, these interactive events are part concert, part education, and part play. Many people don’t the chance to see these instruments up close, and we love introducing them to what we do!
LD@Play programs last about 45 minutes. But we always welcome our audience to come early to do some coloring related to the program. After the show, listeners can come up and talk to us, ask questions, and sometimes even try an instrument!
All our LD@Play programs are built around a theme. Last spring, we presented “Mother Nature Makes Music,” exploring musical depictions the four elements. Composer Theo Chandler helped our enthusiastic audience compose a piece of their own by imitating the sounds of water, air, fire, and earth. It turned into a glorious cacophony!
Theo directs our Nature Chorus
Les Délices presents two different LD@Play programs during our 2019-20 season
From the Ground Up! Saturday, September 28, 2019 at THE BOP STOP
On September 28, we present “From the Ground Up!” which introduces something called a “ground bass.” Can you recall the Pachelbel Canon and that cello part that goes over and over again? A ground bass is a simple, repeating musical idea, and composers and performers often took it as a way to prove that they were cleverer than each other.
Popular ground bass tunes include the Chaconne (usually a sequence of 4 chords), and the Passacaille or Passacaglia (4 notes going down). If you want to learn more about ground basses (also known as “ostinato basses”) go to YouTube or your favorite place to find music, and look up La Folia or Folies d’espagne, La Romanesca, La Monica, or Passamezzo!
“From the Ground Up” sees LD musicians share ground bass pieces from the Baroque era-plus some of our own improvised variations on ground basses. We’ll also introduce our unique instruments – Come ready to sing a little bit!
Medieval Dance Party Saturday, January 18, 2020 at THE BOP STOP
You won’t want to miss our “Medieval Dance Party” on January 18! Come ready to dance and perhaps play some drums as we teach you a medieval dance and introduce medieval instruments including the fiddle, gothic harp, recorders, and a soft, buzzy instrument called a doucaine. Dress to impress in your best medieval garb!