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The academic year 2015-16 was quite an exceptional one for
the Music Department at Summer Fields and, in terms of purely
tangible success, few years can ever have matched it. How fitting
that a department owing so much to one member of staff, Mr David
Langdon, who has been associated with it for 50 years, should enjoy
such kudos in his 50th year with us:more on DML appears elsewhere.
The yearly diet of concerts and performances
continued unabated and there was much to
enjoy, both in public forums and in in-house
events such as our twice-weekly Assemblies.
Indeed, it is at one of these events that
many young performers have their first taste
of playing in front of an audience and it is
fascinating to watch initially timid players
open out as the support of those listening
becomes evident.Well over 100 boys have
played in assemblies over the year and over
150 have performed in one or more of our
regular concerts: two formal events, several
informal concerts for individual disciplines
(wind, piano, guitar, strings) and the Coffee
Concerts for each year-group. It is the latter
that I, like many, find the most enjoyable,
not least as the atmosphere is so relaxed
and cheerful: restarts are forgiven, wrong
notes ignored and virtuosic performances
given the same level of applause as a one-
hand performance of
Ode to Joy
. Every
performer ends his piece with a huge grin on
his face and the audience shares his sense
of fulfilment. As the English composer Sir
MalcolmArnold put it, “Music is the social act
of communication among people, a gesture
of friendship, the strongest there is.”
Of course, these performances are
a combination of talent, personal
commitment and excellent teaching. How
those ingredients are mixed is one of
the most important things we can do at
Summer Fields. First and foremost, the boys
have natural ability! Some don’t always
believe it and some still feel that they are
not as good as others, but the fact that they
can pick up an instrument or open their
mouth, read a code and translate that into
a single note, then a musical line, then a
whole piece of music, is something which
we often take for granted but which is a
truly amazing thing.Whilst some might not
Kent Cup
Y. Hu
Compston Cup
D.C.A. Doughty
Music Progress Cup
F. Han & I. Koizumi
Robinson Cup
For Chapel Choir commitment
M. Lindgren
Hooper Cup for Singing:
D.C.A. Doughty & E.M. Newland
(Michaelmas)
C.A.H. Oberschneider (Summer)
Guitar Cup
J.Y. Flach & G.S.J.
Hopkinson-Woolley
Wind Cup
E.M. Newland
Brass Cup
H.J.F. Minter & S.C.E. Swallow
Recorder Cup
F.L.B. Frankopan
Piano Cup
J. Ha
Strings Cup
Y. Hu
“To send light into
the darkness of
men’s hearts –
such is the duty of
the artist”
Robert Schumann
Music
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
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