ROYAL VISIT
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, April 30, 1975
'LIVE' MUSIC FOR THE ROYAL PROCESSION
A group of Hong Kong musicians have been rehearsing overtime
so that the Queen; during her visit next week, will have an opportunity
to see and hear a traditional Chinese orchestra at work.
The opportunity emerged in the course of planning the procession
for the Queen to be held in Nathan Road on the night of May 6.
At first it was intended that the various participants in the
procession would be performing their acts to the accompaniment of recorded
music, relayed over loudspeakers.
In discussing the technical problems involved, the planning
committee decided it would be more effective to have the music played
by a live orchestra, seated under the Royal Box, so that the Queen would
have a chance to see their traditional instruments and observe their
performing styles.
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However, this created the major problem of an orchestra having
to learn, in a very short space of time, an entirely new and extremely
varied repertoire of musical items, each of which would have to be care-
fully synchronised to the requirements of the individual groups in the
procession.
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/Undaunted by .....