PROFILE: ALASTAIR SIMPSON

– LIBRARIAN, BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SERIES EDITOR ALASTAIR WARREN

Background and career path Born and bred in Dorchester, Dorset, I only took up music because the house my parents bought when I was a child had a piano left by the previous owner. Nearly three decades on I’m now Librarian for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Apart from some choral singing, I played only piano until I attended the Thomas Hardye School, where the Head of Music gave me a bursary to learn an orchestral instrument. I toyed with the idea of the double bass and struggled with French Horn for a couple of weeks before the Brass Master, Kevin Penfold, said ‘Hmm, try the trombone’. It was fascinating to come to a new instrument so different from what I had made music with before, bringing diaphragm, mouth, and movement all together. After Grade 5, Kevin passed me on to Phil Humphries, who I knew a little through folk and early music circles, and he got me to Grade 8 before I left school. I also took up the church organ, being helped by the Salisbury Diocese Pipe-Up scheme, which helps young pianists to learn the organ in order to play for services. I studied Music at Royal Holloway College, University of London and took the trombone as my main instrument through to the end. The new Editor of this august publication licked me into shape for my final recital, pushing me far beyond my boundaries, both in range and extended techniques (this last especially in Rabe’s Basta, a title to which I often appended, in my head, ‘rd’!). By invitation, I joined the trombone section of the Strodes Big Band, a group grown from an adult education class to become the civic flagship for the town of Egham. I’ve long enjoyed playing jazz, and I can think of little else that brings me more joy than tight playing in a good trombone section in a big band. I always knew I’d return to Dorset after graduating, though I had little idea of what to do when I got back there. A chance meeting with a school friend in a pub tipped me the wink of a couple of internships at Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. My contact with our ‘local symphony orchestra’ had been mild; I’d been to a few concerts, usually with a party from school, and I spent my 18th birthday listening to them perform Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, but I had no idea of the large team behind the scenes. I started out as PR and Marketing Intern, mostly writing press releases about upcoming concerts, but I showed an interest in the Library, so when the then-Librarian went freelance, a space was made for me to continue as an intern there. From there to Assistant Librarian for a couple of years, and then, on a retirement, to Librarian proper! I’ve little desire for any more upward progression; the pace of work and freedom to listen to Radio 4 comedy while shuffling papers suits me very well. And I get to work in professional classical music while living in my home county. Couldn’t be better!

My working day The job of Librarian involves making sure the music is as prepared to be played as it can be before the first

PERFORMING AT KENWORTH HOUSE, SUFFOLK, CHRISTMAS 2020. PHOTO CREDIT: SAS ASTRO

rehearsal, including making sure each player has the right parts in the correct pad for them, that it's the edition the conductor wants, and especially the bowings are marked in. These are the small markings on string parts which ensure the bows all go the same way across the orchestra. I have no idea how they work; I just write them in, guv.

The job is very rarely the same day-to-day, and there are many facets to it. For any given concert programme, the work that has to be done goes something like this: (i) order works from the publishers (usually those which are still in copyright), or gather pieces off the shelf if we own them; (ii) check to make sure all the parts are there and in order (sometimes having to make up extra string parts or a bumper part for principal brass); (iii) check the bowings (sometimes the Leader will want to update or make changes to existing bowings, especially if it's a new piece or one which hasn't been off the shelf in a while, in which case I'll run the other string parts past those section leaders in case they want to change their bowings to match) and copy them into the other parts in each section (this is particularly time-consuming as they must all be written in soft pencil, in case they get changed in rehearsal); (iv) scan and digitally save parts which are likely to be asked for as practice copies; (v) pad up the music (ideally six weeks before the first rehearsal, so the musicians have plenty of time to check over the music); (vi) leave pads out for stage managers to take down to stage; (after the concert) receive pads back and un-pad the music; (vii) check it's all there and either put it back on the shelves or send it back to the publishers.

On top of these duties, one might need to repair some old parts which are rather worse for wear; photocopy and stick in an extra page to help an awkward page-turn; pencil in a cut the conductor wants to make; print and bind an extra score for someone to follow; print off a small ensemble arrangement for an outreach project; check the orchestration of an unusual piece …

WITH MEMBERS OF TATTERDEMALION; L-R HARRIET STILL, JULIET BRAIDWOOD, ALASTAIR SIMPSON. CREDIT JANE TEARLE.

The skill, one which I'm not sure I've got the hang of yet, is to juggle all these different aspects smoothly so that nothing is wrong. It is often only when something has been missed or needs doing that the Librarian is sent for. If no-one thinks of us, we've done our job correctly.

After hours After a week of shuffling papers and scribbling in them, my evenings and weekends are usually filled with various hobbies including bellringing, amateur dramatics, knitting, Tudor re-enactment, longbow archery, bookbinding, and folk dance, music and song. I run a ceilidh band, TATTERDEMALION (we play for weddings, parties, fundraisers and other events across Dorset), and am Musical Director for THE NEW HARDY PLAYERS, in which I sometimes 'beef up' the sound of the band with a trombone. However, my rather lovely Conn 88H doesn't often get out of the case much these days, though I've taken the opportunity to lead the music in a community theatre project on Portland this September, and write for the trombone again, including a fanfare which will open the show. I should like to play more often; maybe I'll start by bringing it more regularly to the folk session at The Convivial Rabbit micropub in Dorchester on a Sunday night … ◆