• BBC Symphony for Yorkshire Facebook page

• Follow BBC Symphony for Yorkshire on Twitter

• Helen's first post - how it all began
  

• Helen's second post - recording continues

• Helen's third post - final filming day

• Helen's fourth post - editing begins

• Helen's fifth post - the stage is set

• Picture shows 98-year old Doreen Brigham, who wrote the words to the Symphony with Composer and Director Benjamin Till.

• BBC Symphony for Yorkshire Facebook page

• Follow BBC Symphony for Yorkshire on Twitter

• Helen's first post - how it all began
  

• Helen's second post - recording continues

• Helen's third post - final filming day

• Helen's fourth post - editing begins

• Helen's fifth post - the stage is set

At the head of the parade is a policeman in full uniform banging a large drum followed by a group of majorettes twirling silver batons.  That scene is rare these days but the picture goes on to show the Stannington Brass band, the Mill House Green Male Voice Choir and a bright red, open top double decker bus carrying a saxophone choir.

The photograph has captured the moment but it has also captured the people from Hunter House Road in Sheffield who came out on the street to wave, cheer and talk to eachother and that's what has made me smile most of all.

The Symphony team sits with composer Benjamin Till in a dark edit room in Leeds as they begin to view the film.  It's exciting yet slightly terrifying as they wait to find out if the images are as good as they think they are.  Looking once again at the photograph I know they've captured something special, something which I hope, will make the people of Hunter House Road smile just as much as they are on the photograph in the newspaper.

 Helen Thomas is Head of BBC Yorkshire

• BBC Symphony for Yorkshire Facebook page

• Follow BBC Symphony for Yorkshire on Twitter

• Helen's first post - how it all began
  

• Helen's second post - recording continues

• Helen's third post - final filming day

• Helen's fourth post - editing begins

• Helen's fifth post - the stage is set

You find me sitting on top of the Yorkshire Moors under traditional leaden skies sheltering from the wind which is sweeping across the heather. I'm watching a woman dressed in a sea green gown playing a harp. It's not what you expect to find on top of the Yorkshire Moors but I'm watching the filming of a Symphony for Yorkshire and it looks spectacular.

Fiona Katie Roberts (Katie to her friends) is a 47 year old woman who has been playing the harp for over twenty years. She now teaches the instrument and, I was amazed to learn, has started making her own. Today she is standing on a natural grey slab holding onto a silver harp (home made) while the wind dramatically grabs her dress and throws it into the air.

The Composer, Benjamin Till, is looking up to the sky praying for a small patch of blue sky so he can start recording the final shot while our harpist shivers and eats another bar of chocolate for comfort. Suddenly his prayer is answered (this is God's own county), the clouds part and the shot is captured. It's Yorkshire, it's the Symphony and it's breathtaking.

Next stop is Haworth main street where it's teeming with tourists discovering the Brontes. There we meet a lady from Keighley who plays a tambourine, a student from Hull with a mandolin and a music historian who lives in Leeds who is learning the viola. The street provides the perfect backdrop and the team is in high spirits - everything is going so well. That changed when we returned to the now infamous Haworth car park to find our composer's vehicle clamped. I have to admit we were eight minutes late so beware eager clampers in Howarth. 

Then we got lost, very lost.  We were looking for a tiny village on a hill with a row of cottages. We have quite a lot of tiny villages on a hill with a row of cottages in Yorkshire so finding the right one was a challenge. An hour later we entered the village from opposite directions (not sure how we managed to do that) and there waiting for us was our student from Sheffield with her cello - this was a huge bonus.

An hour later I left Benjamin (not in a great mood following the clamping and the getting lost thing) clambering to the top of a hill to get the right shot of a wind farm where he wanted to film a wind orchestra. Everyone, except Benjamin, looked a bit cold and weary but, as he waved his arms from the top of a hill I instantly knew he had found the perfect spot. I'm left wondering how they managed to get the orchestra up there but a text I received late last night told me they had and the team had left the moors smiling.

Helen Thomas is Head of BBC Yorkshire

• BBC Symphony for Yorkshire Facebook page

• Follow BBC Symphony for Yorkshire on Twitter

• Helen's first post - how it all began
  

• Helen's second post - recording continues

• Helen's third post - final filming day

• Helen's fourth post - editing begins

• Helen's fifth post - the stage is set

A Symphony for Yorkshire performed by the people of Yorkshire - sounds simple doesn't it?  That was the idea - a piece of music inspired by our great region - the cities the moors, the coast line and the streets - played by the very people who make Yorkshire the place that it is. It would be about nine minutes long and along with the weird and wonderful instruments would come some truly remarkable stories. Yes - quite straightforward I found myself thinking.

Today as I write my very first blog the simple idea has become one of the most ambitious and challenging (OK - stressful) projects we've ever tried to get off the ground. Let me take you back to the beginning - it was in a typical BBC meeting room - few windows, a partition and a thermos flask of weak coffee for use in an emergency - where I met the man with a mission to compose - Benjamin Till. Benjamin has worked with communities to make music before - Hampstead Heath the Musical and Coventry Market - The Musical - both were inspirational and I have always had a secret longing to tempt Benjamin to my home region of Yorkshire. Now here he was suggesting a symphony - now I have to admit a symphony wasn't my first thought - but my knowledge of music isn't as advanced as it should be (ask my children) - but why not - A Symphony for Yorkshire has a certain ring to it and a region as proud as this one deserves an ambitious piece of music to call it's own. Yes A Symphony for Yorkshire - great idea.

So Benjamin began to compose - two months later one piece of music in four movements was complete - a symphony.  Now all we needed were some musicians - job done.

We held auditions in all of Yorkshire's major cities and through the doors walked drummers, a brass band (it is Yorkshire), pianists, a man with a saw and a drag act. At the end of an exhausting two weeks on the road we had signed up over two hundred musicians from all walks of life from all over Yorkshire.

As I write we are recording and it's a bit stressful - well it's a lot stressful to be honest - I've seen the Columbian drummers, the Ebor singers and a gentleman who plays the electric violin who Benjamin found busking on a street in York. Some just have a few notes to play others have more but each and every one has a critical part to play.  It's important we get this right as it's something I know we are going to be proud of but the intensity is something I hadn't bargained for (poor knowledge of what it takes to make music again).

We're still recording - the deadline is Yorkshire Day on August 1. Will we make it I keep asking? Well together we're going to find out.

Helen Thomas is Head of BBC Yorkshire

• BBC Symphony for Yorkshire Facebook page

• Follow BBC Symphony for Yorkshire on Twitter

• Helen's first post - how it all began
  

• Helen's second post - recording continues

• Helen's third post - final filming day

• Helen's fourth post - editing begins

• Helen's fifth post - the stage is set