At the close of each academic year, Music Week gives pupils across the School the chance to perform in a rich variety of ensembles, venues and musical styles. This year’s programme ranged from choral evensong in Oxford to wind, brass and percussion in Watford, before concluding with the Summer Serenade and the annual Serenaders’ Jazz Night.
Music Week began on Wednesday 24 June in the chapel of The Queen’s College, Oxford, where the Chamber Choir sang Choral Evensong under the direction of Assistant Director of Music, Mr Ian Crawford. On a very hot day, the cool of the chapel was especially welcome, as was the warm greeting from the College Chaplain, the Reverend Liam Cartwright. We were delighted that the congregation included many friends and family members of the choir.
The service opened with Tallis’s responses, before the choir chanted the first sixteen verses of Psalm 119. The canticles were sung to Herbert Sumsion’s setting in G for men’s voices, and the anthem was Palestrina’s setting of the opening verses of Psalm 42, Sicut cervus.
The Evensong took place on the feast of St John the Baptist, patron saint of the Merchant Taylors’ Company and the saint to whom our School Chapel is dedicated. The first lesson, from Isaiah chapter 40, was read by Peter B. (L6ths), while the second lesson, from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, was read by Lucian H. (5ths). The imagery of water in Psalm 42, echoed in the imagery of baptism associated with John the Baptist, gave a pleasing unity to the service.
The Evensong ended with the seasonal hymn On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry, before Dominic D. (U6ths) played Buxtehude’s Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne in C, BuxWV 137, as the organ voluntary.
On Thursday 25 June, we travelled to St John’s Church, Watford, for No Strings Attached III. Since their inception in 2024, these concerts have provided a platform for the School’s wind, brass and percussion players, as both ensemble musicians and soloists. Holding the third concert at St John’s was particularly fitting, not only because Mr Daniel Tonks, Head of Academic Music, plays the organ there, but also because it reflected the School’s commitment to taking music into the wider community. A retiring collection was held in aid of the church’s organ fund, supporting the restoration of its fine, unaltered Walker organ.
Under the baton of Mr Tonks, Concert Band opened with Sousa’s rousing Liberty Bell March, followed by Philip Sparke’s lyrical A Yorkshire Overture and the upbeat film medley Pixar Movie Magic. Ahead of their appearance at Serenaders’ Jazz Night, the Dixieland Band, directed by Miss Fiona Martin, performed Somebody Stole My Gal and After You’ve Gone.
The first soloist was tuba player Alex E. (U6ths), who delighted the audience with Fnugg by contemporary Norwegian composer Øystein Baadsvik, a virtuosic work making striking use of multiphonics. From beyond the screen came the evocative sound of the Recorder Consort, directed by Mr Tonks, performing a Pavane and Galliarde by the sixteenth-century French composer Claude Gervaise.
The audience was then transported forward several centuries and across the Atlantic by Jim Parker’s A Londoner in New York, performed by Taylors’ Brass. Rehearsed by Mr Steve Byron and conducted on the night by the Director of Music, Mr Simon Couldridge, the suite depicts scenes from the Big Apple, including Harlem, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central, Central Park and Radio City. One of the pleasures of the No Strings Attached concerts is that they allow audiences to hear substantial works which, because of their length, might not otherwise find a place in a school concert programme.
It was fitting, in a concert supporting an organ fund, that the next item was an organ solo from Dominic D. (U6ths). His choice of Stanford’s prelude on St Columba, No. 6 from Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Set 1, Op. 101, allowed the audience to hear the English Romantic character of the instrument at its best.
Concert Band returned with Adam Gorb’s lively A Little Salsa Music, followed by the first and third movements of Holst’s Second Suite in F for Military Band. The first movement featured Jonah G. (U6ths) on the anvil, complete with imitation cross-peen forging hammers. The final work, and the inspiration behind the poster and programme design, was Leroy Anderson’s marvellous The Typewriter. Featuring Jonah G. on the typewriter, it provided a joyful end to a wonderful evening of music-making.
“Thursday’s No Strings Attached concert was a thoroughly enjoyable event. The acoustics of St John’s Church lent themselves very well to the band’s playing, and there was a wide variety of music. My favourite piece was The Typewriter, which incorporated a real typewriter, just one of an eclectic range of instruments played over the evening; others included an anvil and the infamous mark tree.”
The Summer Serenade on Monday was the final large-scale concert of the academic year, bringing together more than 150 musicians from across the School. In recognition of the Head Master’s retirement, and of his appreciation for Wagner, the concert opened with the triumphant Entry of the Masters from The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. This was followed by Sondheim’s more languorous Send in the Clowns, before the Symphony Orchestra concluded its set with the driving March from Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges.
The Chamber Choir, directed by Mr Crawford, then performed Sir John Rutter’s lyrical For the Beauty of the Earth, followed by Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl. Sinfonia continued under the same baton, beginning with John Williams’s theme from Star Wars, before performing Purcell’s famous Rondeau from Abdelazer, later used by Benjamin Britten in A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
In bidding farewell to an exceptional group of Upper Sixth musicians, Mr Couldridge chose Leopold Mozart’s light-hearted Toy Symphony, formerly attributed to Haydn. Alongside the Chamber Orchestra, several Upper Sixth musicians joined on toy instruments: Dominic D. on cuckoo, Max C. on nightingale, Jonah G. on quail, Ben P. on drum and Alex E. on trumpet. Mr Daniel Tonks, who is not leaving but certainly worthy of mention, joined them on the rattle.
To round off the first half, the Thomas White Singers performed three songs of their own choosing. The Lion Sleeps Tonight featured not only Hieronymus the capybara, but also Hugo G. (3rds) wielding a stuffed lion and Mr Crawford’s soaring falsetto. This was followed by a thinly disguised version of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club, renamed La Maison du Cheval Rose, before the group turned to Sullivan’s timeless The Long Day Closes.
As in previous years, the music continued in the Undercroft during the interval. Miss Nicola Hawkins’s Guitar Ensemble performed two works by Lou Warde, As Far As I Can See and A Turning Point. The Dixieland Band, directed by Miss Martin, followed with Somebody Stole My Gal and After You’ve Gone. Taylors’ Brass concluded the interval music by reprising the final two movements of Jim Parker’s A Londoner in New York.
The second half began with Concert Band’s performance of Philip Sparke’s A Yorkshire Overture, conducted by Mr Tonks. Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter followed, with Jonah G. once again starring on the eponymous instrument, this time positioned at a desk adorned with a vintage telephone and lamp.
The School Choir then sang Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, beautifully accompanied on the organ by Dominic D. (U6ths), followed by Dancing in the Moonlight, accompanied by outgoing Graduate Musician Mr Andy Deng. Under Miss Martin’s direction, the Wind Band performed an arrangement of the traditional Sailor’s Hornpipe. The Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Mr Jonathan Lawrence, then delighted the audience with arrangements of Duke Ellington’s C-Jam Blues and John Williams’s Cantina Band.
The concert ended with the massed voices of the School Choir and Choral Society performing OMT Bob Chilcott’s Ophelia, Caliban, and Miranda. We were delighted to welcome back OMT Ivan Nabarro on piano, playing alongside Mr Damon Robb, Mr Couldridge and Jonah G. in the accompanying band. The final movement, All Good Things Come to an End, was a fitting conclusion to a splendid concert.
The annual Serenaders’ Jazz Night, held this year on the last Tuesday of term, brought Music Week to a celebratory close. The evening featured jazz musicians from Merchant Taylors’ and St Helen’s, including the 30-piece Joint Jazz Band under the direction of Mr Andy Gathercole, which bookended the programme. The Merchant Taylors’ Dixieland Band also performed, alongside a number of smaller groups, some formed specially for the occasion.
As ever, the music was accompanied by a fantastic buffet prepared by the catering staff. It was a wonderfully joyful final musical event of the year, and a fitting end to another outstanding year of music at Merchant Taylors’.
