'St. Nicolas

On the 25th and 26th March, Benjamin Britten's Cantata "St. Nicolas" was performed in chapel. This must have constituted the largest musical enterprise that has ever been undertaken at school. The work is marked as a "Cantata for Tenor Solo, Chorus, Piano Duet, Strings, Percussion and Organ". For our soloist we were lucky enough to have the services of Mr. Gordon Pullin, a Minster songman and a member of the University Chamber Choir (the soloist's part was of a technical difficulty too great for any member of the school to have attempted the task); the chorus was comprised of St. Peter's Choral Society, St. Olave's Choir and Queen Margaret's School Senior Choir; the piano duet was provided by members of the school, as was much of the orchestra and percussion, although there were several O.P.s, parents and friends of the school also taking part.

With almost a hundred and thirty people performing, an unusual combination of instruments employed, and a composition written in an attractive modern musical idiom, there were, not surprisingly, many exciting and intriguing musical effects. Such a large number also produced difficulties as far as space was concerned, however. The recent removal of the choir stalls provided a large space in which to accommodate the orchestra, St. Peter's and St. Olave's choirs. Queen Margaret's Choir was placed in the balcony thus leaving only the downstairs stalls in front of the balcony as suitable seats available for the audience. A very suitable place for the soloist was found to be the pulpit where he could be seen and heard to advantage.

A measure of the success of this venture can be seen in the fact that Mr. Anderson, from the Junior School, has had some gramophone recordings of our performance and also that there is a proposal to perform "St. Nicolas" next term in the Minster. The outcome of all the hard work of preparation was gratifying to all concerned, but to none more than it must have been to Miss Alcott who trained the Queen Margaret's and conducted the balcony choir in the 'performances, Mr. Pemberton who trained the St. Olave's Choir and played the organ in the performances, and of course to Mr. Waine who rehearsed both the orchestra and the St. Peter's Choir, conducted at the performances and "master-minded" the whole operation. Apart from the musical expertise shown by the Choir trainers the final performances also represented an enormous feat of true organisational skill and patience.

Since such an ambitious project as "St. Nicolas" met with such success let us hope that in the future we can again co-operate in this way with neighbouring schools to maintain the impressive standard we have set ourselves.

P.D.W.