About
Trombone
AYO: 1967, 1968 and 1969 Seasons
Gordon Sellar was a trombonist with the AYO from 1967 to 1969. Over his career, he played in military bands for 47 years and was with the RAAF Central Band for 19 of those years. Gordon has very fond memories of his time at AYO and admires how AYO has given access to young people in regional areas and has influenced the musicians that have shaped Australia.
Tell us your best AYO memory?
The first AYO was Melbourne 1967. The conductor was the Dutch conductor Wilem van Otterloo, principal conductor of residency orchestra at The Hague. The main work was Beethoven’s 5th symphony. Us trombones do not play until the last movement so we have a long wait. He was not happy about the first few notes and made the strings repeat them over and over again. They were playing triplets instead of a quaver rest followed by three quavers. He was quite annoyed but eventually moved on. He was highly respected as a Beethoven interpreter so I was very stressed coming in on a high C. Many of our parents had served or lived through WW2. I think I have a possible explanation if my memory is not playing tricks with me. In a radio programme connected with WW2 possibly in the 1950s those first four notes were used as a secret call sign or code using triplets and not quavers. Those string players had possibly had that triplet seared into their brains from birth.