The Music Society

Secretary: A. A BLOOMFIELD. Orchestral Secretary: R. G. BEAN.

MR. F. WAINE.

Choral Society Secretary: R. M. KmKus. R. D. BECKrFT.

House Representatives:

Grove: Manor: Queen's:

M. J. BADDELEY. A. M. MARSH. R. G. BEAN. P. L. BARDGETT. J. 0. R. PENMAN. A. BLOOMFIELD.

Rise: School House: Temple: R. M. KIRKUS. N. J. BELL. R. D. Baclaw.

J. E. MOORE. C. G. HOWAT. J. M. W. DOBSON.

We opened the new school year with exactly half the previous year's Committee. Six members remained and six new members were appointed. New officers were elected to the vacant posts, and the programme of the concert in the Easter Term was discussed at the opening meeting. The Secretaries of the Choral Society and Orchestra have all gone about their duties with enthusiasm, and the gramophone record library has been well administered. New records have been purchased during the term, including the recent Adrian Boult recording of Messiah on long playing records.

The Choral Society has met weekly on Wednesday or Thursday mornings after School and has rehearsed several numbers from Part I of Haydn's "Creation" and the Madrigal from the Mikado. It is hoped to add to the amount of Gilbert and Sullivan for the concert next term, but until the copyright on Gilbert and Sullivan expires many difficulties stand in the way of performing selections from the operas at concerts.

The Orchestra has rehearsed at a new time, 6-15 p.m. on Fridays, in the gymnasium, and the experiment has proved worthwhile. The tape-recorder visited a rehearsal at about half-term and it was noticed that in the following week the orchestra played very much better together and in tune. The School has purchased a bassoon and it is hoped that a player will immediately come forward to learn this useful instrument of the orchestral woodwind.

The amplifier has continued to provide music on Fridays after morning school and smallish but increasing audiences have stayed to hear music chosen by members of the School. Some new boys did not appear to know that all are welcome at these recitals, and there is no subscription to the Music Society.

Programmes were arranged and presented by :—A. Bloomfield, J. E. Moore, N. J. Bell, R. D. Beckitt, J. M. W. Dobson, and R. N. Johnson,

MUSIC SOCIETY CONCERT

(Given in the Music Room at 6-30 p.m. on Saturday, 23rd October)

PROGRAMME 1. PIANO DUET (Mr Waine and Mr. Pemberton.) Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D flat.

2. CLAVICHORD RECITAL (Mr. Pemberton). French Suite No. 6 in E. Pavanne and Galliard (The Earl of Salisbury). Sonata (a la Siciliana). Sonata in E flat (K282). 3. PIANO DUETS (Mr. Waine and Mr. Pemberton). Slavonic Dances in E minor and G minor. Three movements from "Children's Suite". Brahms

Bach, 7. S.

Byrd Scarlatti, D.

Mozart

Dvorak Faure

This concert, the only Music Society meeting of the term, was held in the Music Room as the sound of the clavichord would not be audible in Big Hall. Attendance was therefore limited, but thirty-five people crowded into the Music Room for this unusual programme.

Mr. Waine introduced Mr. Pemberton for the first time to the Society, saying that at the last public meeting he had had the exact opposite to do in saying farewell to Mr. Wicks. To break the ice, he and Mr. Pemberton began with a virile performance of a Brahms' Hungarian Dance before Mr. Pemberton was asked to give his demonstration on the clavichord.

Mr. Pemberton began by giving a short history of the clavichord and its successor, the piano, and then went on to explain the mechanism of the clavichord. This, he said, was not unlike that of the piano, for the brass tangent, corresponding roughly to the piano's felt-headed hammer, struck, instead of plucked the string. But there the similarity ended, for while in the piano the hammer, after strik- ing the string, falls away immediately, thus allowing the string to vibrate freely, in the clavichord the tangent remains in contact with the string as long as the player's finger holds the key down. It is obvious then, that the player loses control of the tone quality as soon as the note is sounded, while the clavichordist is able by varied pressure of the key to give the illusion of varied tone quality for the whole duration of the note. The slight tone of the clavichord, amplified on this occasion, was caused because the maximum distance travelled by the tangent was only half an inch. After explaining other technical details, Mr. Pemberton proceeded to give an interestingly varied programme ranging from Byrd to Mozart.

The last section of the recital, containing more piano duets, including the Brahms once more, brought an entertaining evening to a lively close.