MUSICAL NOTES

The Term I Concert and Scholars’ Concert relaunched the live Sydney Grammar School Concert Programme in 2021, albeit it with socially distanced performers and audience members. The winner of the instrumental section of the 2020 Form V Music Competition, Jun McPhee (VI) performed the Concerto for Clarinet by Artie Shaw accompanied by a jazz orchestra in the Term I Concert. Grammarpalooza saw one of the largest audiences it has attracted in recent years and once again raised a considerable amount of money for the Prefects’ charity. James Morrison returned to Grammar for another memorable concert in the John Vallance Hal.

Unfortunately, the sudden lockdown at the very end of the Term II ceased all rehearsals and concerts for the remainder of the school year.Many of our annual events were cancelled, leaving our Form VI boys without their traditional culminating musical activities such as their final concert, the HSC Recital and the Music Dinner. Nonetheless, we are very appreciative of the time and talent that they have demonstrated over their years at College Street.

Music classes, instrumental lessons and some rehearsals did continue, however, with online learning and rehearsing via Zoom (being the norm for most of the year). Boys participated in a series of Lockdown Lunchtime Concerts with video submissions and some ensembles managed some virtual performances. With singing and instrumental playing being regarded as some of the most dangerous activities a boy could do, our normally thriving Music Department was forced into somewhat of a hibernation for the remainder of 2021.

Festival of Film Music

Having reached a feeling of normality around music rehearsals and performances by the end of Term I, the Music Department presented their biannual Music Festival – this year focusing on Film Music. Boys participated in a series of concerts and activities all centered around music associated with film. Dr Nicholas Vines presented a lecture on how music is used in films and Mr Paul Reisner gave a lecture on the music in Hitchcock films. The Festival opened with a wonderful presentation on silent film music in which Mauro Colombis discussed how music enhances the action on the screen while he improvised piano accompaniments for the screening of excerpts from some of the seminal silent films from early last century. It was great to see members of the large audience in the Alastair Mackerras Theatre dress in film related costumes! This was followed by Grammar’s own silent film accompanying competition in which several boys were given 24 hours to devise an accompaniment to a selected short film. The primary focus of the Festival was the two concerts presented in the John Vallance Hall. In these concerts, ensembles performed scores from a diverse range of films whilst images from the films were projected on to large screens behind the performing ensembles. Films included Pirates of the Caribbean, Psycho, The Pink Panther, The Lion King, The Mission, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Singing in the Rain and many more.