Beaumont School Music Department

You will find the reasons for our choices on our personal blogs in due course, but below are our submissions to Radio 4's Desert Island Discs . Click on the teacher's name to go to their respective blogs (where the pictures are clearer). Mr Guinane : Miss Doan :

As well as this beautifully maintained blog, Mr Guinane started his own tumblr blog a few months ago on which he posts musings on music, education and personal interests, including coffee and classic cartoons! Not wanting to be left behind, I have followed suit and set my own tumblr blog too and again, post musings on music, education and other interests. So this the plan. All homework, information and Music Department business will continue to be posted here. However, in our GCSE and A Level lessons, we will both be encouraging wider listening and reading and we will do this from our respective tumblr blogs. You will see that both of the pages are very different and reflect our specific interests. In your spare time, if you want to listening something with clear structure, tonal functional harmony and lovely melodies, then visit my blog For the Love of Tonal Functional Harmony by clicking here. If you want to listen to music that was written in the 20 th century in a v...

On my way to school this morning, I was very excited to discover that Radio 4's popular programme Desert Island Discs will be finally allowing the public choose and submit their own! It's simple, which eight tracks would you take to your mythical desert island (no ipods/mp3s allowed!!). Along with the music, you are able to take one book (you are given the Bible) and a luxury item! Every week Kirsty Young interviews public figures who share with us their tracks and their reasons. Now it's your turn. Click here to submit your Desert Island Discs and watch this space to discover Miss Doan's and Mr Guinane's selections. Bet you can't wait...

The BBC Proms is once again running a Young Composers Competition. If you are interested in applying, please click here for more details.

Miss Doan has been busy on the planning committee of St Albans Young Musicians Competition 2012. Applications will be accepted from soloists and ensembles from students who live or go to school in St Albans. The four categories are: Solo instrumental Vocal Ensemble Classical Ensemble Popular Ensemble The first round will be by a CD submission and the deadline is 15th October. Application forms will be available soon so please look out for them and I will post a link to them on here too. It will be a great opportunity for you to perform so get practising! In the meantime, click here to see the preliminary information on the St Albans Abbey website. You might recognise some of our Year 11s in the photo too... Find us on Facebook by clicking here and follow us on Twitter by clicking here .

As promised, here is the YouTube video of Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens as performed at the Royal Wedding during the signing of the registers. As well as this glorious music, the camera work around Westminster Abbey is simply stunning.

There will be a revision session for Year 12 tomorrow (Thursday) during your usual lesson slot. Please come with issues/questions which have arisen from your revision. There is no point in coming if you don't know what you want to get out of the sessions! There is no obligation to attend. Any essays which you have given in will have been marked so you can collect these too.

This is dedicated to any Year 11 GCSE students who might be up late revising (I hope that's not many of you...). Watch this and then go to bed...

Agony Music Geek (aka Miss Doan ) has answered your questions about Areas of Study 2, 3 and 4. You received this last week, but if you have lost the handout already, click here to download it.

Well done for today's rehearsal - it's tough music, but it will be well worth it. We are playing Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture and Mendelssohn's Nocturne from Midsummer Night's Dream. The concert is on Wednesday 13th July which will come round pretty quickly! There's no rehearsal next week so instead, please click here to listen to the two pieces I would like us to perform.

To all 6th formers and Year 11: As you know, you are an integral part of the Music Department and we expect you to stay involved during exam leave. However, we both understand that you are very busy revising and taking exams so this is what we expect you to attend throughout your exam leave through to the concert: Orchestra Vocal Ensemble Big Band If you are able to make it to Concert Band and Choir, then it would be lovely to see you, but there is no obligation to do so. If you are unable to make a rehearsal for any reason (including an exam), please let the relevant teacher know in advance - you can email us on Beaumont.Music@beaumont.herts.sch.uk or tweet @BeaumontMusic. The Summer Concert is on Wednesday 13th July 2011 , not Thursday 14th, as previously advertised. Year 13s, I will speak to you about solos/ensembles etc. Please let us know asap if you are unable to make it. We're sure that you'll find it quite nice to come into school for rehearsals - it does break up ...

Advice for B354 Listening (Tuesday 17 th May 2011) Don't forget to use BLACK pen or pencil only Take the opportunity of the "read-through" of the paper to underline key words in the questions Don't try and write impressive answers - just answer the question. You get no credit for putting down less obvious answers. Before the extracts have started, see if you can answer some of the questions without listening Decide how many questions to attempt per listening - don't spend ages on one question Once you know what the style of the extract, consider the key words associated with it Don't beat yourself up about not knowing the answer to the odd question Just DESCRIBE WHAT YOU HEAR. Basic answers are often the best. Don't try and dress up answer with language you don't understand, but at the same time, use terminology where appropriate. DON'T PANIC and GOOD LUCK!

Essay title: Compare and contrast the harmony and tonality of the Bach's Sarabande and Gigue with the 1st movement of Tippett's Concerto for Double Orchestra . Here are the notes from Tuesday's lesson.

Below are the Spotify links for the Music from today's lesson: Click here for the link to Walton's Belshazzar's Feast and here for Britten's A ceremony of carols . Information about Belshazzar's Feast can be found here , and A ceremony of carols, here .

Miss Doan is not the only geek in the department. We all knew that Mr Guinane had it in him, but here he is, having stumbled across a coffee and tea festival on the South Bank on Saturday, just before a 4 hour Steve Reich's music (it was a 6 hour concert). Watch him as he talks eloquently about his coffee preferences and the rise of independent coffee shops...

You'll be relieved to discover that geekiness is not confined to Beaumont Music Department staff. The use of the 32' stop on the organ of Westminster Abbey in Parry's I was glad during the Royal Wedding now has its own facebook page. Music geeks from around the world have "liked" it, and some cool person has even posted a photo of the moment it happens in the score (see photo above). Appreciate the 32' moment by listening to the music on the video below. If you would like to express your inner geek, then "like" the facebook page by clicking here .

Here is the document we made on Thursday. Please write up for your next lesson with me (Thurs) or give to me on Tues and I will mark for Thurs. Other details can be found in Miss Doan's post below. Thanks, Mr. Guinane

Here is the write-up from today's lesson, comparing the use of instruments and harmony in the Haydn and Tippett . Your homework is to write up the answer in full. Don't forget it's 18 marks, 6 of which are available for "clear examples." This is due in on Tuesday. Today's lesson was really good - well done and keep up the good work. Miss Doan

Apologies, but the music has not arrived yet. We will not rehearse tomorrow, I'm afraid, but will resume next week. Choir will be on as usual at lunchtime.

This one's for Year 12...

Here is the Spotify playlist and a few videos to keep you going!

Some gamelan videos for you...

Gamelan View more presentations from hanhdoan . Click here for the Spotify playlist . Click here to go the the Cite de la Musique's gamelan site where you can click on the different instruments etc.

Here is the powerpoint and playlist from Thursday's lesson: Bhangra View more presentations from hanhdoan . Click here for the Spotify playlist. Music Teacher Magazine has also created a playlist of Indian Classical Music AND Bhangra. Click here for this playlist .

Year 12, here are your masterpieces from Thursday. Hopefully with a little zooming and image wizardry they will be of some use before the exam. Mr. Guinane