‘Into the Woods’ with New Note Orchestra
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If you’d have gone down to the woods at Three Cornered Copse in Hove last month, you’d have been sure of a big surprise as you might have come across the New Note Orchestra dreaming up a brand new piece of music.
In a first get-together since lockdown restrictions eased, the musicians met to create a unique composition to accompany an online display of some of Royal Pavilion & Museum’s best-loved artworks.
Music & Wellbeing
New Note Orchestra is the first recovery orchestra in the world. They use music and storytelling to help people sustain their recovery from addiction. The participants have also experienced homelessness, social isolation, poor mental health and are at risk of suicide. New Note provides a safe space for people to be creative, build their confidence and develop relationships with people away from drugs and alcohol.
Inspired by some of the rich images of landscapes that appear in the display, the orchestra took to the woods for the day and the result is a very ethereal arrangement with the calming chime of hand bells taking centre stage. The musicians also used the natural environment around them to enhance the music, using sticks and gently knocking on tree trunks for added percussion.
New Note’s guitarist Roger describes the piece:
‘It’s very subtle, some bells and guitar, a little percussion. Nothing erratic, just very chilled. It was beautiful that day listening to the trees, with a bit of light rain.’
New Note’s association with Royal Pavilion & Museums dates back to 2019 when the orchestra was invited to take part in a special day at Brighton Museum to celebrate music and its connection with wellbeing.
Listen to the musical piece whilst absorbing yourself in the beautiful images in the video below.
Art & Music
[arve url=”https://youtu.be/l4FgeeQSTn0″ title=”Into the Woods, with New Note Orchestra and Brighton Museum” /]
To find out the title and artist for each individual painting, click on an image below.
[envira-gallery id=”29472″]
Jody East, Programming Curator
Discover more
- Visit the Heritage Open Days website to learn more about England’s largest festival of history and culture, 11 – 20 September.
- Read more of our Heritage Open Days posts
- Download works from our Fine Art collections from our Digital Media Bank