The Music Society

—it is merely a railway yard where cargoes are received for transport further north to places such as Teheran or the oil-fields. A few mud huts Where the coolies live and one or two store buildings are all there is to be seen, the rest being flat, waste land. The rate of cargo discharge is slow. "We spent 17 days in this port and found conditions very trying. The heat was intense, with maximum daily shade temperatures usually about 115° F. At night time the atmosphere never really cooled down; the mosquitoes were numerous and of a particularly large and vicious species. The hot, dry, N.W. wind that blew during the day made the heat worse, like a blast from a furnace, bringing with it sand that dried up one's throat. This wind is known as a `Shamal', and blows daily during most of the summer months over the Persian Gulf, its most steady period being from the middle of June to the middle of July, during which time it becomes quite strong. We discharged cargo here for Bandar Mashur, Ahwaz and Khorramshahr, as well as for Bandar Shapur itself, and we left on 5th June for Basra."

From Fremantle the "Mountpark" took wheat to Madras and Calcutta, and, as we start the Winter Term, is returning to Fremantle. We are hoping for a further interesting account of this trip when the next ship's mail arrives.

THE MUSICAL SOCIETY

Chairman : F. Waine, Esq., M.A., B.Mus., F.R.C.O., A.R.C.M. Hon. Sec. : R. M. Booth.

The Society has been active throughout the term in spite of the outdoor attractions of the summer.

The weekly lunch hour gramophone recitals have continued successfully throughout the term. They have been arranged by :-

D. A. White and M. I. H. Unwin. R. F. Wyman and P. T. Littlewood. R. M. Booth and E. G. Thompson. M. W. Sanderson and M. C. M. Lochore. J. N. T. Howat and S. C. Daneff.

On Sunday, 19th June, after supper, Mr. Noel B. Kay presented a programme of gramophone records entitled "Signal Successes", being records he had found popular during the war when he was in the Royal Corps of Signals. It was greatly enjoyed by the rather small number of boys who attended.

The House Music Competition and the July Music Festival were part of the Society's activities noticed below.

On the last four Sundays of term, Mr. Waine gave a series of most interesting lecture recitals on some representative modern composers, choosing Richard Strauss, Rachmaninov, William Walton and Delius. He illustrated his remarks by selections from their works played by himself and Mr. Stevens and on gramophone records.

HOUSE SINGING COMPETITIONS 6-15 p.m., Friday, 3rd June, 1949, in Big Hall.

With the aid of singing teams representing their respective Houses, an adjudicator in the person of Mr. Francis Jackson and a gong to sound time (in what we thought a rather pugilistic fashion), the Second House Singing Competition took place.

The standard of singing was higher than last year. Once again there was a set part song and a choice of unison songs. The set song was William Paxton's "Breathe soft ye winds", whilst in the optional unison song Rise and School House chose "The Song of the Jolly Roger" by Chudleigh Candish (who also wrote the words), a blood, salt and water ballad, Grove sang Walter Scott's "Border Ballad" set to music by Frederic Cowen, rather more blood and tartan, and Manor and Temple sang "Rolling down to Rio", the words from Kipling's "Just so stories", set to music by Edward German—no blood, but plenty of salt and water and a good smattering of tropical zoology.

In the Part Song the standard of all the Houses except Rise was much the same. School House had a fine bass foundation but the trebles were rather unsteady and the phrasing not clear-cut. The same applied to Grove. Manor made the mistake of having too many singers on the stage and thus upsetting the balance of the performance and creating a woolly effect. Temple, too, suffered from an overflow of singers. Rise, who won this class, put on five singers, with two trebles. The effect was clean, well-balanced and exceedingly pleasing.

The second class was harder to judge. Manor and School House's unison songs lagged somewhat behind the other Houses, vttho were almost equal in standard. What seemed to tip the scales in Rise's favour was the remarkably effective and well-timed "ha-ha-ha" in their song. Booth's effort as a conductor was convincing and effective, and members of the Rise team will remember how much of a conductor's work is done before ever the concert begins.

We must thank Mr. Francis Jackson for judging the Competition so carefully and meticulously, for illuminating his decisions by interesting and helpful comments, and for conducting the massed choirs in a first-rate performance of the part song at the end of the proceedings. And we must, of course, congratulate the Rise on winning the Cup. There was a large audience.

S. DANEFF.

MARKS

Class

School House Grove ...

I (100)

II (100) ... 72 74 ... 74 80

Rise ... 82 82

Manor ...

... 70 72 Temple ... ... ... ... 73 81

Adjudicator—Francis Jackson, Esq., Mus.B., and Master of the Music, York Minster.

Total Place

146 3 154 2= 164 1 142 5 154 2= F.R.C.O., Organist

JULY MUSIC FESTIVAL

This year a short Music Festival was again held during the last week of term. Heralded by a fine piece of poster work by Wyman and a clutch of photographs of B.B.C. orchestral musicians on the notice boards in Big Hall, it consisted of two concerts of Chamber Music.

The First Concert was given by boys in the School. The three piano solos were of widely different character. Jenkins played a short, closely-knit movement from a Beethoven Sonata with spirit but without full realization of the effect of the resonant qualities of Big Hall. Jack ended his musical career at St. Peter's with a unified interpretation of the loosely-constructed Mozart C minor Fantasia. Smithson took us into a new world of light and shade by his interpretation of Debussy's "La Cathedrale engloutie" (played without music), a piece of melancholy falling cadences which recreated the atmosphere of loneliness and the sea and the mystery of the old Breton legend from which it sprang.

Norwood, the first of the violinists, started the concert well, though perhaps a trifle gingerly, with the corrente from Henry Eccles's 11th Sonata. Wilson played W. H. Reed's "Mignonette" and showed us how charming a little piece by a great orchestral player, who was also a friend and adviser of Elgar, can be. Daneff, with Mr. Stevens, gave a spirited performance of the first movement of Bach's Double Concerto in D minor : a fine work, magnificently wrought by Bach and convincingly played on this occasion.

Mason (whose intonation and tone have greatly improved) played the Defesch Siciliano with a good feeling for its lilting rhythm Ford gave us a new light on Handel's Water Music, this time arranged as a flute solo with pianoforte accompaniment. He showed a good understanding of the contrast in style between the Air and the Bourr6e.

PROGRAMME

1. Violin Solo—Corrente from Sonata No. 11

Henry Eccles

D. P. Norwood 2. Piano Solo—Scherzo from Sonata in A fiat, Op. 26 Beethoven P. Jenkins

3. Violin Solo—"Mignonette"

W. H. Reed

D. J. Wilson 4. Flute Solo—from "The Water Music" ,(i) Air (ii) Bourree Handel J. Ford. 5. Piano Solo—Fantasia in C minor Mozart D. C. Jack

6. 'Cello Solo—Siciliano Defesch

P. J. R. Mason 7. Piano Solo—"La Cathedrale engloutie" Debussy

J. M. Smithson 8. Violin Duet-1st movement of Double Concerto 7 S. Bach S. C. Daneff, Mr. G. W. Stevens Accompanist : Mr. F. Waine 43