Westminster Music Library – our next big adventure

As the dust finally settled on our Arts Council funded project Behind the Lines (a year long programme of music workshops featuring the music and composers of the First World War), I was pondering during the depths of winter 2014 over what we in Westminster Music Library could do next…

Some might argue that being the award-winning Westminster Music Library – one of the largest public music libraries in the UK – ought to be enough. All those fabulous books and scores, staff with amazing music knowledge, interesting events for everyone from toddlers to senior citizens… but the problem is – well it’s not a problem exactly, it’s just that we do love a challenge.

Last November I discovered that The Army were offering funding for projects that would ultimately raise awareness of the British Armed Forces in civvy street, surely we could come up with something for such a worthy cause? Hadn’t we already worked with a bunch of musicians who were based just a step away in Wellington Barracks, all those brilliant recitals with members of the Welsh Guards Band? So that just left the “civvies”, how on earth could we join the two up and still involve Westminster Music Library?

Some scratching of heads and drumming of fingers later the light bulb came on, and we had it – a choir! But not just any old choir, one that would be made up of both army personnel and civilians, accompanied by musicians from the Corps of Army Music, and to add a bit of an extra challenge, grand finale concerts held in the Guard’s Chapel at Wellington Barracks.

So (apart from asking for the money) how would this involve Westminster Music Library? That’s the easy bit: you want something for your choir to sing? Doubtless we’ll have it, and if we don’t, we will pull out all the stops to get it for you. You want somewhere to rehearse? Our newly refurbished Library has just enough space for a choir, and of course there’s a rather nice piano here too.

Now all we needed was a bit of cash to get it up and running – would our military friends like the idea? You bet they would, so move over Gareth Malone, let battle commence!

[Ruth]

Stepping into Vaughan Williams’ shoes

Just when you thought Westminster Music Library’s Behind the Lines programme* was drawing to a close, along comes another workshop, featuring the First World War music of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

This was a specially commissioned adult music workshop for members of Open Age, an organisation with whom Westminster Music Library has forged a fond and fruitful relationship in recent years.

Thanks to generous funding from the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, we were able to re-enlist musicians from The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to facilitate a workshop, focusing on the life and music of Vaughan Williams during The Great War, a composer who holds a special place in our hearts as he opened the library to the public in 1948.

This was also to be a morning of ceremony as we were joined by two distinguished guests – Lt. Cdr Tony Pringle and Honorary Alderman Frances Blois – the former to present to the City of Westminster a copy of the magnificent reference guide – “Stepping Forward” – a tribute to the Volunteer Military Reservists and Supporting Auxiliaries of Greater London 1908 – 2014, compiled by The Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association for Greater London. The book was first published in 2008 as a simple guide to Titles and Battle Honours of the Territorial Army in Greater London since 1908. This new and revised edition now includes all Reserve unit links with the London Boroughs (including Westminster) and contains historical listings of Reserve Forces Centres and the locations of memorials to the fallen.

But back to the music… the focus was first on A Pastoral Symphony. Contemplative in nature, it’s a meditation on a lost generation as well as a celebration of the return of peace; the work embodies a hope that the nation might be healed and made whole again.  This symphony is the third of nine symphonies he wrote, and was composed between 1916 and 1921.  It reflects Vaughan Williams’ experiences in France as a wagon orderly during WW1, not the common misconception that it reflected the English countryside.  The final movement of this symphony includes a wordless soprano line, which the group learnt as the first interactive group activity.  In performance, this is often sung by the soprano from a distance to create a sense of space and emptiness, adding a ghostly lament to the music that depicts the tragedy of the war.  The first half of the session also included an in-depth discussion about the composer and his music.

Following a break we moved on to look at Dona Nobis Pacem – a cantata written at a time when the country was slowly awakening to the possibility of a second European conflict.

Premiered in 1936 and with its dramatic settings of Latin liturgical text and Walt Whitman’s poetry, its emphasis is on reconciliation. Dona Nobis Pacem was performed at countless festivals and concerts in the years leading up to the Second World War.

Given its connections with both World Wars it reminds us that war inevitably brings misery and loss. Vaughan Williams, like everyone else, was a member of his community, and while he was ready to warn his countrymen of the horrors that might lie ahead, he had no hesitation in playing his part in both of the Great Wars once they had started.

Following an interesting discussion between the musicians and participants, the whole group performed their version of two sections of the cantata:  Agnus Dei – a fervent cry for peace, and Dirge for Two Veterans – a mother, portrayed by the moon, watches over the funeral march for her son and husband, who were killed together, symbolic of all families’ losses in lives cut short from one generation to the next.

Time was rapidly running out on our workshop and there was still an important presentation to be made. On behalf of the Reserve Forces and Cadets’ Association for Greater London, Lt Cdr Tony Pringle presented Honorary Alderman Frances Blois with “Stepping Forward”, in memory of all those men and women from the City of Westminster who gave their lives in the Great War 1914-1918. A fitting finale to our workshop, and one which I suspect RVW would have approved.

[Ruth]

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* Between September 2013 and August 2014, to mark the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, Westminster Music Library teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for a programme of workshops focusing on composers who lived through and were influenced by the conflict.

Funded by Arts Council England, Behind the Lines featured interactive and creative workshops for adults, families and primary and secondary school children and concluded with an inter-generational Summer School and final performance at St John’s Smith Square. Using the resources and collections of Westminster Music Library and the expertise of its staff, the workshops were facilitated by a team of musicians from the RPO.

 

Sights and sounds Behind the Lines

On 4 August 2014, the 100^th anniversary of the day the First World War was declared; we opened a four day Behind the Lines creative summer school, due to end with a grand finale performance by participants alongside musicians from the RPO at St John’s Smith Square.

Several people who read our previous post about the Summer School and the performance at St John’s Smith Square asked whether the concert had been recorded. We’re pleased to say that this video about Behind the Lines, including the amazing summer school is now available to view:

 

Take a look at the Gallery too!

The summer school featured two of our First World War composers who were also good friends, Maurice Ravel and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Ravel had wanted to be an air-bomber, but was rejected because he was too small; he was finally allowed to become an ambulance driver, and he saw and experienced the horrors of the front-line at first hand. Vaughan Williams was a stretcher-bearer, who also knew the unimaginable tragedies of the trenches. Both of them made their war-time experiences part of their music; Vaughan Williams in his ‘Pastoral Symphony’, and Ravel in his suite ‘Le tombeau de Couperin’. These works would be the focus of the summer school, using them as inspiration to create a new work for our final concert.

Pupils from schools across Westminster and adults from local community group Open Age all contributed material for the final work, which was performed in front of an audience of VIPs, family and friends. From the opening chords to the incredibly moving finale – an off-stage performance of The Last Post – what started out as a lot of disconnected ideas, transformed into a very moving and fitting tribute not only to our chosen composers, but also our many First World War heroes.

[Ruth]

The Last Post

After months of planning it was finally here – our Behind the Lines* summer school, the culmination of a year-long project for Westminster Music Library in partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Having spent the past twelve months delivering workshops featuring Edward Elgar, Maurice Ravel, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ivor Gurney, Gustav Holst, George Butterworth and Arthur Bliss, it could have been a tough choice to pick out just two composers to feature in our summer school, but as Vaughan Williams has an important connection with Westminster Music Library (he opened the Music Library to the public in 1948) and he and Ravel had been good friends, it proved to be quite easy – this was going to be a good fit.

So it was that on a sunny morning in August 2014, twenty five young participants from schools across Westminster descended on the Music Library for the opening workshop, ably led by workshop leaders Detta and Tash with musicians from The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Two war-inspired works were chosen; Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin  and the fourth movement of Vaughan Williams’ Pastoral symphony. One of Ravel’s greatest successes,  Le Tombeau de Couperin  was completed near the end of the War. This suite for solo piano, influenced by the French Baroque composer François Couperin, was composed between 1914 and 1917, and is based on a traditional French Baroque suite, being made up of 18^th century-style dance movements. Ravel dedicated each movement to the memory of his friends (or in one case, two brothers) who had died fighting in World War I.

In 1914 Vaughan Williams enlisted as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and joined the 2/4th London Field Ambulance, part of the 179th Brigade within the 60th Division. The Pastoral Symphony is clearly and expressively linked to the War and proved to be a necessary and cathartic work for Vaughan Williams. A wordless melody for soprano, accompanied only by a drum roll, that opens the fourth movement, seems to express all the pain and sorrow of the War.

Following a lot of discussion about the horrors of the First World War and the impact it had on our composers, our participants set about creating new melodies, harmonies and poetry based on these two works for their brand new composition, destined for its world premier at St John’s Smith Square.

Later in the week the pupils were joined by adults from local community group Open Age, who were to contribute additional material to the final work and would also be performing on stage alongside our younger musicians. With all these eager performers and brain power it was getting pretty packed in The Music Library – it looked as though we were going to need a much bigger room to rehearse…

One summer school was swiftly re-located to Pimlico Academy and an empty school hall to accommodate what appeared to be almost a full size symphony orchestra with newly formed choir. After four days of rehearsals, re-tunings, new melodies, rhythms, vocal lines, narrative, lost bows and mouth pieces, the consumption of enormous quantities of tea and biscuits, our “magnum opus” was complete. Given that this piece was created by a bunch of people who’d never clapped eyes on each other prior to our summer school, it all sounded pretty impressive at the final rehearsal, and left me in no doubt that their hard work had really paid off.

But now it was time to put them to the test, in front of a live audience at St John’s Smith Square, an audience which would include some pretty impressive VIPs. No pressure then.

From the opening chords to the incredibly moving finale –  an off-stage performance of The Last Post  (our 13 year old trumpet player had stayed up late the previous night practicing to get it spot on – and he did) there was hardly a dry eye in the house.  What started out as a lot of disconnected ideas at the start of the week had been transformed into a very moving and fitting tribute to our chosen composers, and of course all our many First World War heroes.

And so our year of Behind the Lines – the music and composers of The First World War draws to an impressive close. Or does it? Watch this space (and our events pages) for some more Behind  the Lines  activities this autumn.

[Ruth]

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*Over the past year, having received a grant from Arts Council England, Westminster Music Library has been working in partnership with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to deliver Behind the Lines – an extensive programme of music workshops for families, schools and adults inspired by the music and composers of the First World War.
Find out more at www.musicbehindthelines.org

The final countdown

Our last Behind the Lines* School workshop brought this part of our amazing project with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to a close, but what a brilliant finale it was. An enthusiastic bunch of pupils from Servite Primary School in Kensington joined us on a musical adventure through the solar system. With workshop leader Detta Danford and musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English composer Gustav Holst was our very own “stellar” musical guide.

Following a short warm up, the RPO musicians introduced us to Holst’s Planet Suite which he composed between 1914 and 1916. Each of the seven movements is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character, opening with Mars – The bringer of war. The RPO musicians played some very war-like excerpts from Mars, got everybody clapping along in time with the music, and asked us to describe what it reminded us of. There were lots of ideas that fitted with the “outer space” theme ranging from ‘menacing’ to ‘invading aliens’, very fitting for a planet associated with Martian invasions.

The musicians then blasted off into the solar system all the way to the fourth movement of the Suite: Jupiter – The bringer of jollity. As soon as we’d listened to the opening bars, it was easy to understand why the composer described it as being “joyful”; it’s a much brighter and happier piece than Mars. This was a great excuse to make up some words and sing along with the musicians: “Joyful, cheerful day, we’re so happy!”

But it was soon time for the musicians to re-launch the space ship to our final planetary destination: Neptune – The mystic, very dark and mysterious music, it almost sounded like the soundtrack to a horror movie.

Not wanting to linger too long in this eerie and scary place, we stopped our space travel for a while, came back down to earth and explored the Music Library’s shelves. Time for our RPO musicians to be put to the test and show off their fantastic sight reading skills, being presented with scores by Mozart and Richard Strauss proved to be no problem at all. Even better than this, music from The Lion King and The Jungle book didn’t phase them, but the highlight was undoubtedly a rendition of Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror for vibraphone, glockenspiel and violin. These guys really know their stuff!

There was still plenty of time to go back to our exploration of outer space and a return “trip” to Jupiter, this time for a musical re-imagining of this jolly planet. All the new ideas, rhythms and melodies the group created which had been inspired by Gustav Holst’s original Suite came together for a very “out of this world” final performance, before the return voyage to Planet Earth.

A very exciting journey of The Planet Suite for our young musical explorers, one which we hope will inspire all of us to learn more about this much loved symphonic work. Here’s a few interesting facts to get you started:

• Gustav Holst studied astrology which inspired him to compose The Planet Suite
• There are two missing planets: Earth and Pluto (the latter was undiscovered at the time he composed it)
• The Planet Suite premiered in 1918 when The First World War was still raging.

For most of his adult life, Gustav Holst taught music at St Paul’s School for Girls in Hammersmith, part of our very own Tri-borough. He paid tribute to the school and the area in his St Paul’s Suite for strings, and Hammersmith, prelude and scherzo for military band.

[Ruth]

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*In 2013 Westminster Music Library teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Behind the Lines, a large-scale programme of musical activities focusing on composers and music of the First World War. Our adult, family and schools Behind the Lines workshops may be over (for now – we’re busily planning lots of future musical activities – watch this space!) but there’s still our Summer School to look forward to next month where we’ll be commemorating the music and composers of World War One, and ending with a grand finale performance by participants alongside musicians at St John Smith’s Square.

To find out more or to grab yourself a place on the Summer School, visit: www.musicbehindthelines.org/workshops/summer-school/

Over here… and over there

It’s no surprise that there are events to commemorate the centenary of the First World War happening all over the country; we at Westminster Music Library are over half way through our year-long Behind the Lines project*, taking a closer look at the music and composers of WW1.

But what about all those fabulous, morale boosting, patriotic and often romantic popular songs of the WW1 era? How could we possibly not include them in our repertoire?

Many of these songs are catchy and great fun to sing – did we need a better reason to invite our local residents along for a jolly good sing-along?

So last Friday we treated the good people of Westminster to a sing-along of popular WW1 songs, ably supported by our house pianist.

From It’s a Long Way to Tipperary (possibly the best known song from the War, it’s actually a Music Hall song from 1912 with no military connection. Jack Judge, the author of the lyrics, apparently wrote it as a bet. The troops adopted it in the summer of 1914 and it became one of the most popular songs of WW1), the deeply satirical Oh! It’s a Lovely War (reflecting the growing frustration as the War continued without conclusion, this song went on to inspire the musical and film Oh, What a Lovely War! in the 1960s), Over there (words and music by American George M Cohan; Over there was his most famous song, he was even awarded a congressional citation for penning it) to the much loved Keep the home fires burning (the greatest patriotic song to come out of England during the First World War, although written in London, was actually the result of a collaboration in 1914 between American lyricist, Lena Guilbert Ford, and Welsh composer, Ivor Novello).

It proved to be an enjoyable day out for our participants and the first of a number of similar events we have up our sleeves.

The following day saw both singer and pianist trekking across London to Woolwich, to perform our now very well rehearsed First World War sing-along at the BBC WW1 at Home Summer Tour. Part of the Woolwich Great Get Together and Armed Forces Day, not only were we entertaining the “troops”, we had our “15 minutes of fame”, a live interview with Robert Elms to plug Westminster Music Library on BBC Radio London.

Our next Westminster Music Library WW1 Sing-along is scheduled as part of Westminster’s Silver Sunday activities in October; however we are always open for bookings…

I just wanted to extend a huge thank you for taking part in Saturday’s BBC WWI @ Home event. I appreciate all the effort, time and patience that went into keeping the show on the road – despite our various disruptions – not least the rain!
The feedback we had from people about our content was hugely positive… that positivity was completely owing to your contribution and we could not have done it without you.
We hope you enjoyed the experience too – not just being on the stage but your stint on the radio, which is heard by hundreds of thousands of Londoners.
On behalf of our stage host David Friend and Robert Elms and his team – thank you and I wish you lots of success with your library and workshops.
Kulwant Sohal, Senior Broadcast Journalist, BBC London

[Ruth]

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*Westminster Music Library has teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for ‘Behind the Lines’, a large-scale programme of musical activities focusing on composers and music of the First World War. Taking place across the City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea for 12 months starting in October 2013, we present interactive workshops and creative music projects focusing on composers such as Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Bliss, and Holst.

Our year of Behind the Lines activities culminates with a four day Creative Summer School in August 2014, celebrating the music and composers of World War One, with a grand finale performance by participants alongside musicians from the Orchestra at St John Smith’s Square.

To find out more or to grab yourself a place on the Summer School, visit: http://musicbehindthelines.org/workshops/summer-school/

Ralph Vaughan Williams re-visits Westminster Music Library

Westminster Music Library played host to the introduction of the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams to year 6 pupils of St. Barnabas CofE school, particularly fitting as the library was opened by the man himself back in 1948.  

Workshop leader Detta was accompanied by no fewer than five RPO musicians: two violinists, one flautist, one bassoonist and one cellist – enough to almost fully demonstrate the music.

The children were all introduced to the variety of  orchestral instruments before listening to them play as an ensemble as they demonstrated a section of Vaughan Williams’ ‘A London Symphony’, which reflects an older London filled with smog and mist. 

However, before being told the theme and title of the work, the pupils of St. Barnabas School put their imaginations in gear and considered what the music may represent – the group decided it sounded quite sad, quiet, and melancholic.  Some individuals offered their opinions, and thought the music sounded like someone dying, someone in danger, or someone upset. 

Next came the Pastoral Symphony which sounded completely different with its portrayal of country folk life and music to suggest dancing, feasts and celebration.  There are questions whether this work is based on an actual folk song or not, but it would not be implausible to suggest so, as Vaughan Williams was a keen collector of folk music. 

The workshop group decided to experiment and play around with this music, performing it both faster and slower than originally intended by the composer.  The effect of slowness changed the dance-like character of the music to boring and “too calm”, as suggested by one pupil.  Playing it much faster was a clear favourite among the pupils as it was much more exciting, lively and happy.  The dance-like feel of the music was made using a lot of dotted rhythms.  The group put their own touch to the music by adding some more interesting rhythms using percussive body sounds.  This group was very imaginative and created quite a tricky but effective rhythm!  The group will take this rhythm back to school and work on it further to create their own piece of music in the remaining sessions they have with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Finally, the children made use of the Music Library and put the RPO musicians’ sight reading skills to the test as they all chose a score from the shelves at random.  Unfortunately for the musicians, a few individuals picked some tricky pieces, including one of the hardest pieces in the whole library – Berio’s Sequenza for Viola.  One of the violinists made a good attempt at it, before the whole ensemble was asked to play a snippet from Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini.  Changing genre to finish with, the group played some Bob Dylan – much to the delight of our cellist, Roberto!

[Jane]

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*Behind the Lines is a year-long programme of participatory events run by Westminster Music Library in partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, to encourage local communities from across Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea to engage with the Library and its collections. The programme uses the centenary of the First World War as inspiration for a series of interactive workshops and creative projects designed for adult, family and school participants.

Although outr workshops have come to a close, you can still enroll for the 4 day summer school in August which is suitable all ages and abilities. Visit the website for details: http://musicbehindthelines.org/workshops/summer-school/   to find out more.

Last but not least: Butterworth and Bliss

Sadly, Saturday marked the final family workshops in the Behind the Lines* series – for now – but we definitely finished on a high. The two workshops were based on the music of Arthur Bliss and George Butterworth, both composers who served in WW1. Tragically, Butterworth was killed whilst on active duty in the War in 1916, and Bliss was injured and emotionally scarred for life.

The day’s professional musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) were Phil on trombone, Simon on trumpet (who introduced himself by playing the popular Iggle Piggle theme, particularly entertaining for the youngest participants!) and Michael on violin, all led by workshop leader Natasha who plays cello.

After everyone had taken part in a vigorous shaking, tapping and clapping warm up in preparation for fun music-making , the RPO musicians introduced the music, starting with a fragment of ‘Spring’ from ‘The Ballad of the Four Seasons’ by Arthur Bliss.

Taking each musician’s part of the music on its own, the children decided which animals they most sounded like. They decided that the violin part sounded like a little mouse, the trumpet sounded like a slithering snake, and the trombone sounded like a prowling lion, creating quite a zoo in Westminster Music Library! But these three animals weren’t the best of friends and needed more of their own kind to be happy and to hang out with. So the children decided if they wanted to be a mouse, a snake or a lion, and created their own music to accompany Bliss’ on a variety of exciting instruments that the RPO had brought with them; from tambourines to wood blocks, and whistles to a vibraphone. With such a variety of instruments, the children could make all kinds of sounds.

The big performance told the story of a lion on the prowl, hunting for food, but he ran away when he saw a little mouse scurrying along the ground. The little mouse sniffed around for a while but then saw a slithering snake and ran away too!

Westminster Music Library then went from being a zoo to being a scene of war as the RPO musicians played some music by George Butterworth whilst the children marched around the Library in time with the music, like military men. During their journey around the Library everyone picked out one book or score from the shelves. Putting the musicians on the spot, a select few were lucky enough to have theirs played. This workshop was one out of two today, and finished with Butterworth’s ‘On the Idle Hill of Summer’.

 

The second workshop, for children in primary school, featured the same composers and music. After introductions by the RPO, all the children and adults participating in the workshop introduced themselves as well as telling everyone their favourite music and if they played any instruments or not. The discovery was soon made that among the adults there were many failed violinists but among the children there was an abundance of talent; from violinists, to cellists (much to Natasha’s delight!), to recorder players, to harmonica players! But for those who didn’t play anything in particular or didn’t have their instrument with them today, there was a grand choice of percussive instruments to play in the session.

The RPO musicians introduced Bliss’ Four Seasons piece again, but instead of associating the sounds with animals, this group closed their eyes and listened carefully, and shared what colour they thought the music sounded like. Everyone agreed on spring colours such as yellow, pink and green. Then it was the musicians’ turns to use their imaginations as they had to create music based on a word given by some volunteers; words including ‘snowman’, ‘tomato’ and ‘scarecrow’!

After this, the group split into the four seasons of the year and chose musical instruments which would best portray that season. Spring with Michael had a selection of stringed instruments and chimes, summer with Simon included guitars and glockenspiels, autumn was represented by drums and the vibraphone, and winter with Phil had drums and rattles. The groups put their thinking caps on and created exciting music with their instruments and themes, and in their grand finale performance, we were taken through the 365 days of the year in 5 minutes! Finishing with the summer season, the group came up with a very catchy summer melody and encouraged everyone to join in. I think it is safe to say everyone went home with the tune in their heads!

The workshop was a great representation of the talents, imaginations and creativities of the children. This was the last in the current series of our Behind the Lines family workshops at Westminster Music Library, but we hope to create more opportunities like this one in the near future, so watch this space!

[Jane McConnell]

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*Behind the Lines is a year-long programme of participatory events run by Westminster Music Library in partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, to encourage local communities from across Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea to engage with the Library and its collections. The programme uses the centenary of the First World War as inspiration for a series of interactive workshops and creative projects designed for adult, family and school participants.

Although our public workshops have come to an end, there is still our exciting Behind the Lines Summer School to look forward to opening on 4 August. Check out our website: http://www.musicbehindthelines.org/ to find out more and register your interest.