Intermediate Music Competition: Final
On Thursday evening the finalists for the Intermediate Music Competition gathered to perform in front of their families, teachers special guest judge Ian Crawford to see who would come out on top as winner of the competition.
As far as house competitions go, the annual House Music Competition is perhaps the most drawn out, lasting nearly two whole terms - next year it will last three. In Music Week the final of the Intermediate part of this competition takes place, and is open to boys in the Fourth Form and the Divisions. The entrants numbered about fifty or sixty this year, and after the preliminary rounds a few weeks ago, the music staff narrowed eighteen finalists. Owing to some spurious entries, there was no percussion class this year.
The evening began with the longest class, that of the pianists, where we were treated to music by Kaputsin, Debussy, Brubeck, and Chopin. Lucian H. (4ths), Dhiren K. (Divs), Max O. (4ths), and Benjamin Y. (4ths) all performed admirably in this class. Next came the strings class, populated entirely by violinists. We heard two Romantic works and one Classical piece. Zhennuo W. (Divs), Benjamin Y. (4ths), and Kian C. (Divs) were the contestants in this class. The vocal class was begun by Milan A. (4ths) with a lied by Schumann, followed by Aarnav H's (4ths) performance of a Handel aria from Alcina. The class ended with William L’s (4ths) lyrical interpretation of Beethoven’s song Ich liebe dich. The woodwind class saw performances on three different instruments, the clarinet, saxophone, and flute. All were twentieth century works, but all quite different. Ben C. (Divs) opened with some Malcolm Arnold, Rafi A. (4ths) transported us with his performance of a piece by Andy Scott, and Kieran K. (Divs) closed with a truly spectacular piece, the Waltz from John Rutter’s Suite Antique. The guitar class which followed contained only two boys, Aviral A. (Divs) and Jack B. (4ths). Aviral’s piece, Adana, transported us to the subcontinent, whilst Jack’s performance was of a traditional Irish song. The final class of the evening was the brass class, which began with Kabir B. (4ths) on the trombone playing Bizet’s lively Chanson de Toredor. This was followed by Avi P’s (Divs) unaccompanied Hillbilly by Mark Nightingale. The final performance of the evening was from Hugh S (Divs). His performance of Gilbert Vinter’s dramatic Hunter’s Moon was a tremendous end to the performances.
In our adjudicator, Ian Crawford, we were fortunate to have an accomplished musician and inspiring educator. Currently Director of Music at another of the Merchant Taylors Company’s schools, the King’s School in Macclesfield, he previously taught in another Merchant Taylors’ School, the one in Crosby, Liverpool. His comments were informative, encouraging and amusing throughout. Many of his comments focussed on the importance of poise and presence, as well as the centrality of seeing all musical lines as vocal phrases. He emphasised the importance of singing as part of musical education.
The prizes were awarded as follows:
Piano class: Benjamin Y (4ths)
String class: Kian C. (Divs)
Voice class: William L. (4ths)
Woodwind class: Keiran K. (Divs)
Guitar class: Aviral A. (3rds)
Brass class: Hugh S. (Divs)
Highly commended: Avi P. (Divs)
Overall winner: Benjamin Y. (4ths)
