MUSIC NEWS
A Term in Music The green shoots of recovery are well and truly evident in a really varied term of live music making at Lancing. The pupils, ever adaptable, have managed to put on an enormous amount; their achievements from this term are outlined below. Inevitably there have been some disappointments as circumstances have necessitated the postponement of a number of events. Nevertheless, the direction of travel is a positive one and in the new academic year we eagerly look forward to the continued restoration of live music making as an experience to be enjoyed and shared by performers and audience alike. At the start of the term the Choir – in House pairs – continued to sing music for the two Wednesday morning services. The Eve of Founder’s Day Eucharist was the first choral Eucharist for many months and an extremely meaningful moment for the school community. At the Service of Thanksgiving on the day itself,
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THE QUAD
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SUMMER 2021
Ben Millward-Sadler sung a wonderful bass solo in the anthem Where Thou Reignest by Schubert. After Half Term the long-awaited return of the Eucharist on Wednesday morning enabled the Choir to revise several settings of the mass with Vierne, Stanford, Darke and Briggs. Sadly, a service of Choral Evensong was postponed after the pupils had worked so hard on preparing music by Dyson and Gibbons, but this again will be rescheduled for September. With a trip planned to sing Evensong at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle next term, there is much to look forward to. The pupils have rehearsed a vast range of music in year group bubbles, some for the ensemble itself and others
as part of a larger work. The Third Form ensemble, for example, have learned Bach’s evergreen Air on the G String and the Fourth Form ensemble worked on Prokoviev’s quirky Gavotte from the Classical Symphony. All year groups in the orchestra have also been preparing to perform themes from Jurassic Park, Sousa’s Liberty Bell March and the Basse-Danse from Warlock’s Capriol Suite. Whilst the postponement of the Summer Concert was unfortunate, we are already eagerly anticipating a ‘Late, Late Summer Concert’ in September. The same fate befell the Junior Concert where members of Sinfonia had been practising favourite themes from Star Wars, Battle Hymn of the Republic,