Programme: Celebrating Tonbridge Music

C E L E B R AT I N G TO N B R I D G E

MUSIC

CONCERT PROGRAMME FRIDAY 19 JAN 2018 CADOGAN HALL

TIM HAYNES HEADMASTER

I

am delighted to welcome you to Cadogan Hall this evening for this very special evening of Tonbridge music. It is wonderful to have this opportunity to celebrate the great and diverse musical talents of Tonbridge boys - past as well as present.

Music, in its many forms, has the capacity to feed the soul and transport us to other worlds, and I am sure it will do just that this evening.

I am immensely grateful to all the performers and all those behind the scenes who have made this celebratory concert possible. I hope you enjoy it, and that we give you an evening to remember.

CHAPEL CHOIR I Was Glad, Parry Nunc Dimittis, Hywel Davies, When Jesus Our Lord Was Born, Mendelssohn

Hubert Parry, who died 100 years ago this year, is perhaps best-known as a composer of rousing, patriotic melodies such as Jerusalem, but he was a prolific and serious composer, writing symphonies, chamber music, songs and, of course, choral music. His anthem, I Was Glad, was written for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and has been performed at each occasion since. Taking words from Psalm 122, Parry characterises each verse with colourful vocal writing and organ accompaniment, with the magical shift to G flat major for the gentler section “O pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

Hywel Davies composed his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, The Tonbridge Service, for the Chapel Choir, and it was first performed in 2017. This setting of the “Nunc dimittis” has a simple premise: the lower voices provide a flowing chordal accompaniment using pentatonic harmonies, while the boy choristers (the trebles) float a melody above this.

Unlike many settings of this text, the choir sings unaccompanied, enabling the text to be heard clearly and providing a more reflective character to the words which the old man Simeon spoke on seeing the baby Jesus at his presentation in the temple.

Taken from Felix Mendelssohn’s unfinished oratorio Christus, the final Chapel Choir piece is specifically for this season of Epiphany, with the journey of the wise men to the baby Jesus. Indeed, Mendelssohn concludes the piece with the choir singing the Epiphany-tide chorale “How brightly beams the morning star.” The chorus is preceded by a short recitative which introduces the scene (sung by a solo voice), followed by a trio for three male voices, representing the three wise men in their Epiphany journey to worship the baby Jesus.

CHESS Hymn to Chess Quartet - A Model of Decorum and Tranquility I Know Him So Well

The 1986 musical, Chess, was a collaboration between Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, of ABBA fame, and Tim Rice, who had recently penned Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita with Andrew Lloyd Webber. The story satirised the hostile political atmosphere of the Cold War and the “chess match of the century” between Bobby Fisher of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.

The Deal

At the first game’s opening ceremony, a hymn is sung to celebrate the match. The American player, Freddie Trumper, stages an effective and insulting walkout on the Soviet player, Anatoly Sergievsky. In the ensuing quartet, Freddie’s second, Florence Vassy, tries to defend his behaviour to a sneering Molokov (Anatoly’s KGB second). She meets her soon-to-be lover, Anatoly, for the first time. Meanwhile, the Arbiter of the contest continues to outline the rules.

I Know Him So Well was the undoubted hit of the show. Florence recalls how well she knows the lover who has just left her while his wife, Svetlana, does the same.

In Act Two, Anatoly has defected to the West and is offered various bribes involving Florence, her family and the standard musical theatre love-triangles between both of them, Freddie and Svetlana. These all come to the fore in The Deal where all the principal characters seek to manipulate each other for their own personal gain.

OLD TONBRIDGIAN VOCAL GROUP O Magnum Mysterium, Morten Lauridsen

“For centuries, composers have been inspired by the beautiful O Magnum Mysterium text depicting the birth of the new-born King amongst the lowly animals and shepherds. This affirmation of God’s grace to the meek and the adoration of the Blessed Virgin are celebrated in my setting through a quiet song of profound inner joy.”

- Morten Lauridsen Lauridsen composed this motet for the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1994, but it took a few years for it to gather widespread praise. He prepared the version for male voices we hear this evening for the tenors and basses from the same choir in 2000.

BIG BAND Blue Skies Soul Man It’s Only a Paper Moon Chameleon I Want You Back

Blue Skies was composed in 1926 by Irving Berlin as a last minute addition to a musical by Rodgers and Hart. It has since been covered by artists as diverse as Willie Nelson and Kiri Te Kanawa, as well as appearing in numerous films, most notably The Jazz Singer and White Christmas.

The inspiration behind Isaac Hayes’ 1967 soul classic, Soul Man, came during Detroit’s 12th Street Riot. The buildings left standing, mainly Afro-American homes, had “Soul” painted on them. The song, originally sung

by Sam and Dave, became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.

Although composed by Harold Arlen in 1933, It’s Only a Paper Moon, had to wait a decade or two before achieving mass popularity thanks to versions by Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. In contrast, Herbie Hancock’s 1973 number, Chameleon, became an instant ‘Jazz-Funk’ standard. Three years before this, Motown released the first single from a family group, The Jackson Five, featuring an eleven-year-old Michael as lead vocalist.

INTERVAL

Interval 20 minutes Refreshments are available in the Culford Room and Oakley Room

MASSED STRING ORCHESTRA Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, Arvo Pärt

This elegiac work for strings and a single tubular bell was composed in 1977. Pärt had come to know Britten’s music comparatively late in life and felt in his music a kindred spirit. Benjamin Britten’s death ‘struck a chord’ in Pärt:

“I had just discovered Britten for myself. Just before his death I began to appreciate the unusual purity of his music ... for a long time I had wanted to meet Britten personally and now it would never come to that.”

The work utilises a simple technique, common to composers of the medieval and Renaissance periods, of a canon or round where each musical line exactly imitates the other. Here a slowly descending scale of A minor is imitated, but also overlapped and played at different speeds. The result is a mesmeric tangle of lines evoking a powerful expression of loss and melancholy. Also important is the silence, with which the piece begins and which is written into the score. The work has become one of Pärt’s most popular pieces and has been used by a number of film-makers, for instance, in Michael Moore’s 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, where it accompanies the aftermath of the attacks on the Twin Towers.

Mily Balakirev, leader of the nationalist group of Russian composers and composer of an overture to King Lear, suggested Romeo and Juliet to Tchaikovsky during a long walk they took together in 1869. A first attempt at writing came to nothing and it was not until Balakirev sent Tchaikovsky a fairly detailed plan that his inspiration took fire.

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky does not attempt to tell the story but bases his musical material on the characters and situations in the play. In the solemn introduction he sets Friar Laurence as “a solitary soul, with spiritual aspiration for heaven”, though critics heard the theme as a symbol of fate, alluding to his role within the drama. The Friar’s “sacred” chorale is scored for clarinets and bassoons, consciously suggesting the sound of a church organ. The solemnity is disturbed by hints of the conflict to come as the strings enter, but there is serenity too in the harp-accompanied passage.

A rumbling from the timpani prepares us for the Allegro giusto where the ferocity of the Montague and Capulet street-fighting bursts upon us “like beasts that quench the fire of your pernicious rage with purple fountains issuing from your veins” as the Prince of Verona describes it in Shakespeare’s play. The two families are depicted in the antiphonal nature of the string and woodwind writing. The clash of swords is vividly portrayed by syncopated stabbing chords over furious unison string figures. A transition section takes us to the beautiful melody of the star-crossed lovers; a passage on the strings describes their youth, innocence and the purity of their love.

In the central section the Friar Laurence (or fate) theme is used in combination with that describing the feuding families. When the love theme reappears it is much more passionate, even desperate. We become aware that hatred between the families is to destroy the two lovers. At the climax the Friar Laurence theme is played by the trumpets in a terrifying transformation, it is certainly fate now!

The quasi-religious funeral march, outlined by timpani and double basses, at the conclusion describes the death of Romeo and Juliet. It also hints that Montagues and Capulets will bury their differences following the terrible outcome of their enmity. The music suggests also that, to quote the Prince again, “A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head...”

CHAPEL CHOIR

PREP SCHOOL CHORISTERS Harry Attenborough (HG) Sami Barker (HG) Sasha Batchelor (HG) Felix Burnett (HG) Marco Calcagnini (HG) Charlie Crampin (YC) James Flint (YC) Thomas George (HG) Artie Paice (YC) Tristan Peters (HG) Conrad Phillpot (YC) Sam Pottle (YC) Alfie Rawlings (HG) Toby Sell (HG) Heston Symonds (YC) Dominic Thomas (HG) Max Ventris (YC) Alex Walker (HG) Christopher Walker (HG) James Williams (YC)

ALTO Zack Clemitson (CH) Freddie Mobbs (WH) Jeremy Suppey (SH) Teddy Trenowden (HS) Alexander Trigg (CH) Thurso Willett (Sc) Sean Yap (PS)

Kit Rawlins (WW) William Richards (SH) Harry Robson (PS) Guy Sharpe (PH) Ieuan Williams (JH) Sherman Yip (HS) Harris Yu (JH) Seth Zuberi (SH)

TENOR Samuel Attenborough (PH) Jamie Davidson Greare (PS) Gabriel Day (CH) Ben Gardner (CH) Benjamin Hampson (SH) Wilkie Hoare (WW) Alexander Lambert (JH) Jack Middleton (PS) Harry Mobbs (WH) Toby Peters (MH) George Priestly (PS) Oliver Rajaratnam (HS)

BASS James Craggs (PS) Nicholas George (FH) Oliver Moore (SH) Blake Phillpot (MH) Thomas Rochussen (Sc) Adam Smethurst (HS) Harry Whitty (WW)

CONDUCTOR Julian Thomas

ORGAN David Williams

OLD TONBRIDGIAN VOCAL GROUP

Oscar Burnett (WW 12-17) Alexander Davan Wetton (SH 04-09) Harry George (FH 09-14) James Gower-Smith (SH 06-11) George Kendrick (FH 05-10) Charles Kingston (OH 12-17) Tomos Lavery (FH 04-09)

William Osman (SH 08-13) Chris Pelmore (OH 06-11) Michael Pelmore (WH 07-12) William Pierce (FH 12-17) Adam Rochussen (Sc 10-15) Justin Shee (MH 05-10)

CHESS

SINGERS Frederick Trumper - Teddy Trenowden (HS) Florence Vassey - Charlotte Lester Anatoly Sergievsky - Guy Sharpe (PH) Walter de Courcey - Ben Faure Walker (WW) Alexander Molokov - Nicholas George (FH) Arbiter - Harry Street (MH) Svetlana Sergievskaya - Honor Wines Soloist - Jamie Davidson-Grear (PS)

VIOLIN Benedict Burgess (WW) Colin Chow (Sc) Curtis Lam (MH) Ralph Lavercombe (JH) Oliver Moore (SH) Edward Sanders (OH) Tou Jing Tsang (PS) Jason Wu (FH) CELLO Marcus Pengelly (OH) Jonathan Percival (MH) FLUTE Justin Leung (MH) Harry Mobbs (WH) OBOE/COR ANGLAIS Hugo Pettman (WW) CLARINET Daniel Stick (WH) Joe Stick (WH) CLARINET / BASS CLARINET Louis Dean (OH) BASSOON Steve Rhind

HORN Luc Bowkley (PS) TRUMPET George Adams (OH) Harry Robson (PS) Thomas Rochussen (Sc) TROMBONE Harry Whitty (WW) Alice Yelf KEYBOARD Justin Chu (HS) Jeremy Suppey (SH) Alex Trigg (CH) GUITAR Bruce Dent (PH) BASS GUITAR Patrick Beare (Sc) DRUMS Sam Rawlins (WW) PERCUSSION Freddie Mobbs (WH)

BIG BAND

TRUMPET George Adams (OH) Billy Bastide (FH) Tiarnan Cotter (FH 07-12) Michael Pelmore (WH 07-12) William Pitt (WH) Harry Robson (PS) Thomas Rochussen (Sc) Hugo Ward (HS 10-15) Oliver Ward (HS) TROMBONE Friedrich Evans (JH) Kit Rawlins (WW) Harry Witty (WW) Alice Yelf ALTO SAX Louis Dean (OH) Joe Hopkins (JH) Ben Jones (SH 08-13) Ayo Ogunyemi (PS) Sam Rawlins (WW) Joe Stick (WH) Oliver Todd (WW)

TENOR SAX Ed Coe (PH 05-10) Jonty Corrin (WH) Jack Dalton (FH) Hector Zamarriego Vere (PS) BARITONE SAX Matthew Barker (PS) GUITAR Henry Matson (PH) BASS GUITAR Patrick Beare (Sc) KEYBOARD Guy Sharpe (PH) DRUMS Oliver Lowres (WH)

MASSED STRING ORCHESRA

VIOLIN Roshan Aiyagari (HS) Benedict Burgess (WW) Colin Chow (Sc) Alex Davan Wetton (SH 04-09) Samuel Ford (WH) Theo Hemmant (CH) Louis Hockton (Sc) Alec Jones (WH) John Jung (Sc) Charles Kingston (OH 12-17) Harry Kwong (OH 12-17) Curtis Lam (MH) Ralph Lavercombe (JH) Joseph Li (HS) Oliver Moore (SH) Andrew Pearson Toby Peters (MH) Oliver Poole (WH) Alexander Quigley (PH) Edward Sanders (OH) Nicholas Sanders (OH) Philip Saunes (CH) Jeremy Suppey (SH) Alex Trigg (CH) Jason Wu (FH)

VIOLA Frances Clack Benjamin Gardner (CH) William Pierce (FH 12-17) Caspar Rangarajan (MH) Barnaby Todd (WW) Tou Jing Tsang (PS) Leo Walsh Harris Yu (JH) CELLO Patrick Beare (Sc) Brian Chan (JH) Ian Chow (Sc) Bernard Ho (MH) Peter Kingston (OH) Matthew Lee (WH) Sam Lomax (MH) Ben Michaels (FH 07-12) Marcus Pengelly (OH) Jonathan Percival (MH) Harvey Wen (SH) Ernest Wong (JH) DOUBLE BASS Finn Burbanks (MH) Juliet Burnett Nick George (FH) Wilkie Hoare (WW) Vincent Kehoe (OH 08-13)

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

VIOLIN Roshan Aiyagari (HS) Benedict Burgess (WW) Colin Chow (Sc) Alex Davan Wetton (SH 04-09) Theo Hemmant (CH) Louis Hockton (Sc) John Jung (Sc) Charles Kingston (OH 12-17) Harry Kwong (MH 10-14) Curtis Lam (MH) Ralph Lavercombe (JH) Joseph Li (HS) Oliver Moore (SH) Andrew Pearson Toby Peters (MH) Oliver Poole (WH) Alexander Quigley (PH) Edward Sanders (OH) Philip Saunes (CH) Jeremy Suppey (SH) Alex Trigg (CH) Jason Wu (FH) VIOLA Frances Clack William Pierce (FH 12-17) Barnaby Todd (WW) Tou Jing Tsang (PS) Harris Yu (JH) Leo Walsh

CELLO Patrick Beare (SC) Brian Chan (JH) Bernard Ho (MH) Peter Kingston (OH) Matthew Lee (WH) Ben Michaels (FH 07-12) Marcus Pengelly (OH) Jonathan Percival (MH) Ernest Wong (JH) DOUBLE BASS Finn Burbanks (MH) Juliet Burnett Nick George (FH) Vincent Kehoe (OH 08-13) FLUTE Jamie Davidson Grear (PS) Justin Leung (MH) Harry Mobbs (WH) OBOE Charlie Cocke (FH) Jeremy Lau (MH) Hugo Pettman (WW) CLARINET Justin Chu (HS) Edward Kim (FH) Barry Lam (SC) Joe Stick (WH) Oliver Todd (WW)

BASSOON Joshua Holman (SH) Ayo Ogunyemi (PS) Steve Rhind HORN Luc Bowkley (PS) David Clack Riley Clarke (OH 04-09) Becky Craig Jean-Baptiste Defour (JH) George Kendrick (FH 07-12) TRUMPET George Adams (OH) Tiarnan Cotter (FH 07-12) Michael Pelmore (WH 07-12) Thomas Rochussen (Sc) TROMBONE Kit Rawlins (WW) Harry Whitty (WW) Alice Yelf TUBA Martin Jarvis TIMPANI Sam Rawlins (WW) PERCUSSION Jonathan Lee (JH) Archie Munro (WW) HARP Daniel De-Fry

DIRECTOR OF MUSIC & CONDUCTOR Mark Forkgen

Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1JP www.tonbridge-school.co.uk 01732 365555 admissions@tonbridge-school.org