Music
Gustav Holst was Director of Music at the school during the period he composed his orchestral suite, The Planets; he was succeeded by Herbert Howells before John Gardner followed in the 1950s. Gardner wrote many memorable pieces for the school, including his popular Christmas carols Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day and The Holly and the Ivy.
The school has many music programs, for mainstream pupils, and also scholarship or advanced pupils. The training orchestra, called the "Sinfonia", is generally for years 7-9, however some lower ability students stay on. It trains for one and a half hours a week. The advanced orchestra, called the "Symphony", is generally for years 10 and above, however, higher ability and scholarship musicians from younger year groups perform in it as well. It trains for two hours a week. There are also a number of string, brass and flute groups, as well as a wind band. The school also has a choral program. For Lower School students (ages 11-13), there is the Junior Choir. For Middle School Students (ages 14-16) there is a Middle School Choir. Both of these are open to all. However, for the Senior School (ages 16-18), there is a select choir. For the entire school, there is an advanced choir - "Paulina Voices" - to which admission is by audition only.
Read more about this topic: St Paul's Girls' School
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“See where my Love sits in the beds of spices,
Beset all round with camphor, myrrh, and roses,
And interlaced with curious devices
Which her apart from all the world incloses!
There doth she tune her lute for her delight,
And with sweet music makes the ground to move,
Whilst I, poor I, do sit in heavy plight,
Wailing alone my unrespected love;”
—Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602)
“Poetry
Exceeding music must take the place
Of empty heaven and its hymns....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside you—like music to the musician or Marxism to the Communist—or else it is nothing, an empty formalized bore around which pedants can endlessly drone their notes and explanations.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)