Prep House Music Day

The Prep House Music Day took place on Thursday 9th February in the Wallace Hall and was quite simply, a day of music and fun. The day was split into two parts: a morning session, in which we had the house music competition, and the afternoon session, in which we were treated to a recital of music from Dr Ian Taylor and his pupils from Farnborough Hill School.

The morning kicked off beautifully and in jovial style with a rendition of Wellerman by the Upton Staff Choir, followed by the junior and senior piano solo sections which included renditions of Tale As Old As Time, Disco Baroque, Little Playmates, Allegretto, The Detective and Starry Dome. Next were the junior and senior instrumental sections which featured Lava on ukulele, Yellow on electric drum kit, Mad World on acoustic guitar and Chanson Triste, Shake It Off and Allegro on violin. We were then treated to three original compositions in the open instrumental ensemble section, entitled Monsoon, Aquarium and Forest Tribe, arranged by the Form 6 girls using tuned and untuned percussion instruments.

After a morning snack and play time the competition resumed, this time focusing on our singers. The junior vocal solos included When I Grow Up, Just One Person and Soul Sister and the junior vocal duets included Tomorrow, Eye Of The Tiger and Somewhere Over The Rainbow. The senior vocal solos included The Greatest Love Of All, No Time To Die and Celestian, whilst the senior vocal duets included Rolling In The Deep, Sucker and an original song using a composition created in music technology lessons entitled Lost In The Game. The penultimate section, the wild card section, could include both singing and instrumentation and the chosen songs were Mamma Mia, Titanium and Unstoppable. Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for arrived; the finale of the competition - the House Songs. This year the three songs, chosen, arranged and choreographed by the children themselves, were I’m Still Standing, Build Me Up Buttercup and Try Everything. The scores, which had been shared throughout each section of the competition, were added up and this year the winning House Cup was lifted by the St. Andrew House Captain, Alice.

The event was recorded and a link to the House Music Song performances was sent to parents post-production. In little more than two days, 150 people watched the performances in 8 countries, of whom 85% were in the UK and 6% in the US. Further viewers logged in from Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Japan and Austria.

After lunch we returned to the hall once more, this time to enjoy some music performed by a large group of Farnborough Hill School’s eldest students, directed by Dr Taylor. They performed a fantastic variety of songs and instrumental pieces and we were able to enjoy the sounds of the piano, violin, saxophone, French horn, trumpet and cajón, all played beautifully and performed with great energy. The afternoon was tremendous fun and the perfect way to end an inspiring and very enjoyable Prep House Music Day.