TIMING is everything when you are part of an orchestra.
There is a moment of hush – a mixture of tension and anticipation – as each musician is poised to play their first note just before the music starts.
Through time these components of an orchestra have never changed but the styles of music vary.
A growing trend is to use concert halls for film screenings – with a live music score performed for the audience to accompany the action.
This has proved a success in venues like the Royal Albert Hall with a 95-piece orchestra and 40-strong choir bringing the drama of James Cameron’s Titanic to life with cymbals crashing, strings swelling and horns attacking.
Since its orchestral version of The Lord of the Rings in 2009, the Royal Albert Hall has hosted musical accompaniments to Star Trek, The Godfather and Gladiator, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Back to the Future will also be performed later this year.
It is hoped the craze will continue to filter down to smaller venues in addition to more traditional orchestral performances of which there are so many memories of in Sussex.
Dipping into The Argus archive, The Royal Albert Hall was filled with the Sussex Youth Orchestra as it was conducted in front of a packed audience by Roger Durston in 1987.
Tony Laycock captured Robert Bowley rehearsing with the West Sussex Youth Orchestra ready for a concert in the 1990s.
Keen young musician Eric Hanson is pictured playing violin in the Steyning Orchestra during the same era.
In a similar period Phil Wigglesworth also took a great picture of the brass section of Sussex Youth Orchestra, lined up in a row as they practiced their tunes. Another well-known conductor Jan Cervenka was pictured leading his musicians in 1986. He was conductor and musical director of the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra from 1968 to 1996.
David Bartlett also captured this picture of the orchestra rehearsing in 1975 – but do you recognise the hall they were practicing in?
Conductor Aedan Kerney smiles for the camera as he prepares to count in the Boundstone Orchestra in Brighton.
Do you recognise anyone in the picture or remember what year this was taken?
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here