Blog Index

  • 2024 Score Excerpt Competition Answers

    Each Bold Answer is 1 Mark, alternative answers in Italic– 24 in total

  • Advent Carols Programme Notes

    When does Christmas start? The shops stock Christmas in September; The Christmas adverts start in October; The radio plays songs from November; The decorations are up in December. In the Church, Christmas truly begins with the Mass on Christmas Day. The preceding weeks make up the season of Advent—a time not of celebration, but of…

  • Stanford Concert Programme Notes

    2024 marks the centenary of the death of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, one of the most eminent composers in the early 20th Century with a well-deserved musical legacy. His time as a Professor of composition at the Royal College of Music saw him mentoring some of the most iconic voices of early twentieth-century British music,…

  • 2024 Score Excerpt Competition

    Every year, I have a competition for all my GCSE and A level music students. This competition is designed to further their score reading abilities, and also provide them with some wider listening. The booklet contains 10 excerpts of musical scores. The score is out of 24, as each question requires 2 or 3 pieces…

  • Madrigals Programme Notes

    The Choral repertoire is dominated by music of the Church – as daily life across the centuries was too. From this wealth of music, we can glean insight into the relationship that the generations before us had with the divine, through joy and through strife. With faith comes piousness, a sense of purpose as part…

  • Mozart Requiem – Druce Completion – Programme Notes

    The narrative surrounding Mozart’s Requiem is steeped in intrigue and drama. In the twilight year of 1791, an enigmatic commission landed in Mozart’s hands. An Austrian aristocrat desired a Requiem Mass (Catholic Mass for the Dead) to be composed in memory of his departed wife, and he would compensate generously for it. The commission arrived…