16 Programme Notes WATFORD SCHOOL OF MUSIC YOUTH ORCHESTRA Conductor: Adrian Leaper Borodin Polovtsian Dances Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, "Land of Elgar Hope and Glory" The Watford School of Music is part of the provision made by the County Education Department for musical education in Hertfordshire. Over six hundred school children and about two hundred adult students attend weekly for individual instumental lessons and supporting theoretical studies. Exhibitioner, '0' and 'A' level and diploma courses are available and a full range of graduated choral, chamber music and orchestral training is also provided. The Youth Orchestra gives regular cnncerts at the Watford Town Hall, nl)d in schools and churches in the area. It is also in demand at local festivals and music societies. Polovtsian Dances - Borodin Alexander Borodin 1833 - 1887 was the distinguished professor of chemistry in the University of St. Petersbourg and an eminent researcher in that science. He found time to write a small number of magnificent musical works, many of which are still in the concert repertory. His vast historical operatic pageant 'Prince Igor' contains a wonderfully colourful set of Polovtsian Dances. These are the dances of the wild Polovtzi tribes from East of the Caucasus who invaded Russia and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, as conceived by a late nineteenth centu'r y master of symphonic orchestration. The haunting melody that opens the suite is the opening of the prisoners' chorus 'Flyaway on the wings ofthe wind" in Act 2 of the Opera Land of Hope and Glory - Elgar The Pomp and Circumstance Marches form a series of five military marches for orchestra, four of which date from between 1901 and 1907, and the lastfrom 1930. The celebrated patriotic words of A.C. Benson were added later to the first march in D major, for a special Gala performance given to COmmemorate the Coronation of Edward VII.
WILLIAM RHODES SCHOOL BRASS BAND Chesterfield Conductor: David Windle Men of Harlech trad., arr. Gordon Langford Hootenany trad., arr. Harold Waiters The Band was formed in 1968 under the direction of David Windle, and is now recognised as one ofthe outstanding Youth Bands in the country. Over the years, the Band has visited Darmstadt, Chesterfield's twin-town, on three occasions, and appeared twice in the national Schools Brass Assooiation Festival. It has made reguJar TV ~pearances and radio broadcasts and also p layed before HM The Queen on her visit to Chesterfield. Three LP records have been pr:oduced, and recently the Band visited Belgium to play at the Weize Oktober Festen. Men of Harlech - arr. Gordon Langford One of the many brilliant arrangements by Gordon Langford, one of the most prolific composers and arrangers for brass bands. Hootenany - arr. Harold WaIters This is a folk festival for brass and encompasses many American folk melodies.
too severe to practice their art of campanology in the tower. They therefore had manufactured a set of bells small enough to hold and ring in their hands allowing practice to take place in the far more convivial atmosphere of the local hostelry. They would often sit on long benches and take the bells off one another's lap - hence the lapping method. In this demonstration the children will produce the exact sounds one would hear pealing from a tower with 8 bells playing Plain Bob - a simple form of change ringing. Here the bells take the lead in turn apd plain hunt down and back the line. All 8 bells will eventually return to their starting position, only after 112 entirely different mathematical patterns have been formulated with continous precision and accuracy.
SURREY COUNTY WIND ORCHESTRA Conductor: David Hamilton Soloist: Michael Collins Concert Piece for clarinet Rimsky-Korsakov and wind orchestra The SURREY COUNTY WIND ORCHESTRA is one of Surrey's two County orchestras, (the Surrey County Youth orchestra played a prominent part in last year's Schools' Prom). It was founded in 1975 and immediately made a successful name for itself at a local level. Within two years it had gained the 'Outstanding Performance Award' of the National Festival of Music for Youth, during the Silver Jubilee Celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall. At this year's N.F. M.Y., the S.C.W.O. were highly commended in their class and their Wind Quintet took first place in the Chamber Music section. They are also appearing at the Schools' Proms. Michael Collins路 comes from Feltham, Middlesex. he is a student at the Junior Department ofthe Royal College of Music where he studies the clarinet with David Hamilton. In April this year he took first place in the Woodwind section of the BBC's <Young Musician of the Year' competition. He is a member of the National Orchestra and is also an accomplished pianist. Concertpiece for Clarinet and Wind Orchestra Rimsky-Korsakov This work dates from 1878 and was one of a number of compositions for wind orchestra which Rimsky-Korsakov wrote during his years as Inspector of Bands for the Russian Imperial Navy. This position gave him full scope as a composer for imaginative experimentation with the sonorities of massed wind instruments, a field in which he was an acknowledged pioneer and which contributed to his later recognition as a master of orchestration. The present edition of this Concenpiece is by Gregor Fittelberg who, with the composer's consent revised and embellished the solo part in order to emphasise the virtuoso aspect of the work.
PATCHWAY C.E. SCHOOL HANDBELL RINGERS Bristol Tutor: A.W.D. Hayes A Touch of Plain Bob Major trad. During the past six years the School has had a succession of successful and well known handbell teams. In 1973, the School celebrated the wedding of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips by ringing a Touch of Plain Bob Royal on BBC Radio Bristol and local television's "Points West:' The Handbell Ringers received a {Irivileged invitation in 1976 wben they were chosen by the Handbell Ringers of Great Britain to ring at the N atiop,al Rally in the Simon de Montfort Hall, Leicester. This was a particular honour for the children, as only a few teams are chosen each year to represent the best of handbell ringing in the country. In 1977, the Handbell Ringers rang in a performance of "The Song of Caedmon" under the baton of Donald Swann in Wells Cathedral. A Touch of Plain Bob Major - trad. Handbells were first used in the 16th. and 17th. centuries by tower bell ringers, who found the rigours of the English winter Surrey County Wind Orchestra