Thomas Rushton
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thomasrushton.bsky.social
Thomas Rushton
@thomasrushton.bsky.social
380 followers 890 following 620 posts
Classical double bassist - lots of chamber music, orchestral, and operatic experience - always looking for more musical fun; occasional oboist & cellist ditto.
SQL Server DBA, working for Coeo.com supporting many clients and the team.
Leeds, UK
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thomasrushton.bsky.social
Ugh. Here, have a stripey sheep.
A photo of a sheep, except the sheep's body has been given extra shine and black stripes running diagonally down its length, making it look like a popular mint sweet - or, a "bah, humbug". No? Oh well, someone tried...
September 6, 2025 at 11:17 AM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Looking at the bass parts for the next Enigma gig (20th Sept, Chester). HOW MANY SLURS? How do I do this? HOW?

I've pointed this out to the MD, who's just replied with a smiley face reaction. *sigh*.

If you want to find out how I deal with this, come to www.tickettailor.com/events/enigm...
Extract of a piece of music showing two notes (with a couple of passing notes) joined by five slurs all in parallel.
September 6, 2025 at 11:15 AM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Not sure where this came from, but... Yeah.
Cartoon, gravestone with the caption "Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025". Pigeons are around - one perched on the gravestone, one pecking at crumbs on the ground, and, in homage to one of his songs, one is feet up, presumably poisoned. Author / illustrator presumed to be "BANX" as that name appears top left.
July 29, 2025 at 9:47 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Something to play, for gits & shiggles, is Hummel's clarinet quartet, if only for the movement known as "Seccatura":

Pick a time signature, any time signature...
close up of the first bar(ish) of a movement of Hummel's Clarinet Quartet, showing the individual parts having their own time signatures.
July 15, 2025 at 6:48 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Poster for tonight's gig with #LeedsSymphonyOrchestra #OriginalLSO

#LiveMusic #ClassicalMusic #Leeds #Yorkshire

#Copland #Hindemith #SaintSaens because why not tag those guys as well?

It's going to be loud.
Advertising poster for a Leeds Symphony Orchestra concert. Useful text includes: Saturday 5th July 2025, 7:30pm St Bartholomew's Church, Armley, LS12 1SR LSO - Leeds Symphony Orchestra Hindemith - Symphonic Metamorphosis Copland - Billy the Kid (Ballet Suite) Saint-Saens - Symphony No. 3 in C minor "Organ Symphony", Organist: Shaun Turnbull Conductor: John Lyon Leader: Alison Major Ticket prices: Adults £12, Students £5, Under 18s Free.
July 5, 2025 at 12:05 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
An unusual rehearsal for me, inasmuch as I'm not the biggest instrument in use in this concert - towering above us is the organ in St Bartholomew's Church in Armley.

A loud concert tomorrow @ 7:30pm. Copland, Hindemith, and, of course, Saint-Saens's 3rd Symphony (organ symphony, if you must)
Photo from today's rehearsal of some of Leeds Symphony Orchestra, from the vantage point of the double bass section, looking back over the wind section at the rather large organ towering above us. In the foreground to the right is rather inconveniently-placed wooden statue/carving of St Bartholomew.
July 4, 2025 at 9:18 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
To paraphrase the T-Shirt, my son went to the @rijksmuseum.bsky.social, and all I got was this lousy fridge magnet with a picture of a Doctor Who character(*).

(*) Yes, I know.
Badly-taken shaky Phone Camera photo of a fridge magnet. Wood-effect frame, and the image is "Self-Portrait With Hat" by Vincent Van Gogh - the 1887 one with him looking rather gaunt and wearing a grey hat, brown coat with black trim, white shirt with blue background.
June 22, 2025 at 7:58 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
A tale of two rehearsals.

Tuesday night's view: RVW's English Folksong Suite, original concert band version.

Thursday night's view: RVW's English Folksong Suite, arranged for symphony orchestra.

Spot the difference(s), and the reason(s) for my confusion for the next few weeks.
Two views of the oboe part for the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folksong Suite. On the left, the original concert band version. On the right, the arrangement for full orchestra. There are...differences. Significant, confusing differences. Two views of the oboe part for the second movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folksong Suite. On the left, the original concert band version. On the right, the arrangement for full orchestra. There are...differences. Significant, confusing differences. Two views of the oboe part for the third movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folksong Suite. On the left, the original concert band version. On the right, the arrangement for full orchestra. There are...differences. Significant, confusing differences.
June 5, 2025 at 9:48 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
A couple of views of yesterday's, erm, office? Recording studio? A church?

Anyway. Yesterday was spent recording nine demo tracks for a newly-created orchestra - Enigma Orchestra.

Today, I am very tired.
View of a conductor from the back desk of the small orchestra. There are bright lights - so bright - and an amount of haze in the air. Or, possibly, some air in the haze. Some microphones are also in evidence. Inside view of a church (All Souls, Blackman Lane, Leeds) from about halfway down the nave looking towards the East end. There's some haze in the air allowing the rays of pinkish lighting to be visible.
May 25, 2025 at 11:43 AM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
First rehearsal for the next #LeedsSymphonyOrchestra gig. This is going to be loud.
Sheet music laid out on a music stand. Double bass parts for Saint-Saens's third ("organ") symphony, Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses, and Copland's Billy the Kid ballet suite.
May 12, 2025 at 9:03 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Next gig - Saturday May 10th, 7:30pm, St George's church, Leeds. Come up and say "hi" - I'll be one of the bassists...

#LeedsSymphonyOrchestra #TheOriginalLSO #Mozart #Brahms #Tchaikovsky #ClassicalMusic #LiveMusic #Leeds #WestYorkshire
Poster advertising Leeds Symphony Orchestra's concert on 10th May 2025, 7:30pm, at St George's church, Leeds LS1 3BR. Poster theme is a sea-green colour, with pink highlights. Images of Mozart, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky . Programme details are on the poster - Mozart, "Magic Flute overture"; Brahms, "double concerto for violin and cello, with soloists Tom Greed and Dan Bull"; Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4. Conductor - John Lyon Leader - Alison Major Tickets - Adults - £12, Students - £5, Children - free.
April 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
This might be of interest, if not much use. It's a bad photo of a fascinating piece of paper I saw in m'late uncle & aunt's house last year. No idea what happened to it...
Badly-lit photo of a sketch showing the bow grip for six famous cellists - Starker, du Pre, Piatigorsky, Fournier, Rostropovich, Tortelier.
April 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Wise words from the past...

From the striking / rioting / whatever Gods in LUU OperaSoc production of Orpheus in the Underworld far too many years ago... I had no idea they were doing that. And they displayed it on the day when my dad was in the audience...
Cardboard sign saying "RUSHTON MUST PLAY BASS", held by someone looking a bit grumpy.
March 23, 2025 at 9:18 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Agreed.

I had the penultimate piece of this one, and it was really rather good.
display of cakes - the half-time refreshments at West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra's concert at Yeadon Town Hall.
March 23, 2025 at 6:21 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Part of this evening's rehearsal generating severe flashbacks... exacerbated by recent local musical losses.

One of the happier memories is below. #NorthernWagnerOrchestra - not that that exists any more... :-/
front page of the double bass part for Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier".
February 26, 2025 at 10:09 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Some people, when they stay in far-flung places, share the views from their hotel windows - Fabulous beaches, wildebeest, Sydney Opera House.

I therefore present you with the view from my hotel room window.

Note that I have saved you from the view of the railway track - at eye level.
Looking down from a second storey window. There are big bins, small bins, and some really small binlets. Mostly black, some of the biggest have orange lids. Behind the bins is a fence, and a scrubby scruffy embankment rising up. Not shown is the top of the embankment, and the railway track that's about at eye level.
February 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Next concert with Leeds Symphony Orchestra

Be there or be somewhere else.
Digital poster for Leeds Symphony Orchestra's next concert. Text reads: Celebrating International Women's Day Clara Schumann Piano Concerto Piano solist: Winnie Su Emilie Mayer Faust Overture Amy Beach Gaelic Symphony 7:30pm | 8th March 2025 St Margaret's Church | Horsforth Conductor | John Lyon Leader | Alison Major Tickets £12 | £5 | Free
February 18, 2025 at 9:20 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Today's musical view.
This was then followed by 4.5 hours driving. Ugh. I'm going to be no fun in the office in, erm, 10 hours or so. :-/
Sheet music set out almost for playing, more for display. Upright, we have the double bass part for Rheinberger's nonet, and Spohr's "Grand Nonetto". Lying down in front of the Rheinberger is the bass part for Martinu's nonet. It's not just Spohr who wrote for the combination of one of each of violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon. There's a lot more out there, and some of it is really good.
February 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Today's view was not quite what I was hoping for, given the recent coughs and wheezes...

Hard work. Fun, but hard work. My face aches.

I have another day of playing tomorrow - fortunately, on double bass - before schlepping down to the office for a few days.
Sheet music - first oboe part for Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, also known as "Eroica". The bottom right is obscured by a few reeds, soaking in readiness. Not gin, unfortunately, although the copper-looking thing they're in ia s spirits measure which arrived attached to a bottle of Bloom's gin a few years ago. This is the problem wiht the rise of digital photography - a dearth of old 35mm film canisters to use for this sort of thing.
February 16, 2025 at 6:08 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Introductory text from Asterix the Gaul, in a Latin translation.
February 5, 2025 at 2:23 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
The Gary Carpenter / Pantomime tune is from the final movement, last page... ...and I really need to do some practice, as I'm performing it in June.

There's only one recording online that I've been able to find - soundcloud.com/gary-carpent... - if you want/need to hear it.
Excerpt of sheet music from Gary Carpenter's "Pantomime" - musical theatre music for the same scoring as Mozart's "Gran Partita". The excerpt is from the final movement "Waltz - Depravity", and shows the double bass part does occasionally get an actual tune to play. This one is quite high.
January 27, 2025 at 11:35 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
There's a nice bass tune in Gary Carpenter's "Pantomime" (same scoring as Mozart's "Gran Partita").

...but that's always countered by this bass part from Gilbert & Sullivan's "Yeomen of the Guard". (There is another version, but - steady - it's just E flat, rather than D).
Double bass part from a song in Gilbert & Sullivan's "Yeomen of the Guard". The duet - Act 1, No.7 - is known as "I have a song to sing-oh". Unless you're a double-bassist, in which case it's "I have one note to play-oh", as it's one long sustained D (in this edition; there's another edition where it's an E flat) for two pages.
January 27, 2025 at 11:31 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
This evening's rehearsal involved too many semiquavers in a key with too many sharps in a church that was too bloody cold for that sort of thing.

Double bass part, obviously, Emilie Mayer's "Faust - Ouverture" (yer actual French, y'know). Leeds Symphony Orchestra, gig in about six weeks...
Sheet music. Specifically, a section of a page of the double bass part for "Faust - Ouverture" (yer actual French) by Emilie Mayer. The passage in question is marked "un poco piu lento", which is only coming down from "allegro", so a bit quick, and is about eight bars of semiquavers with accidentals in a key that already has five sharps (or "hashtags", according to some of da yoot).
January 27, 2025 at 10:16 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
Today's rehearsal, for a concert in a few months time. Sounds far away, but we only meet up about once a month... :-/

Still, sounding good. Just need a bit more concentrated rehearsal time.
Sheet music. Double bass parts. First page of Mozart's Serenade in B flat, the so-called "Gran Partita". Along side this is the front cover of "Pantomime", by Gary Carpenter, written for the same combination as the Mozart - being four double reeds (two oboes, two bassoons), four single reeds (being two clarinets, two basset horns), four french horns, and double bass(*) (*) No, not contrabassoon. <warning - rant starts here> Show me a contrabassoonist who can play pizzicato. I will fight about this, and, anyway, that's what's in the facsimile score on IMSLP. "Contrabass". If that was supposed to be contrabassoon, it would say "Contrafagotto" or "contrafag", as the bassoon parts are labelled "fagotto"... As an extremely professorial Mozartologist / musicologist once said to me "if Mozart had wanted homogeneity of sound, he would have bloody written it." Grr.
January 25, 2025 at 4:29 PM
thomasrushton.bsky.social
If you see this, post a Stingray
A picture of Stingray - the Gerry Anderson submarine
January 18, 2025 at 6:29 PM