Beaumont School Music Department

A huge congratulations to everyone who performed in the St Albans Young Musician Competition today.  As always you were a credit to the school and you all performed with such musicianship, passion and professionalism.   Everyone who performed is listed below and those who won their categories are in bold.   Recordings (and photos!) to follow! Secondary Instrument Ensemble: Louisa Briguglio & Niamh Quinn Secondary Vocal Solo:  Emily Almond and Emma Doherty (joint winners) Secondary Vocal Ensemble: Beaumont Year 13 Girls (also Paul Harris' performance of the afternoon), Emily Almond & Emma Doherty, Alice Webster & Beth Wilson Secondary Wind/Brass solo: Louisa Briguglio, Luke Bainbridge Secondary School Choir: Beaumont Vocal Ensemble Secondary String solo: Yannick Mayaud Secondary Band: Beaumont Big Band We are proud of you all.

Just a final reminder for Sunday: Meet in Sumpter Yard (near that cursed tree or whatever) at 12.45pm Dress code is SMART ALL BLACK (no T-shirts) and skirts/dresses MUST be of an appropriate length.  Smart shoes are also required. Bring enough water/juice for the afternoon - it's going to be a long one. No food is allowed in the Abbey itself but hopefully there should be an opportunity to nip out to the café if you need. Entry is £5 for adults.  Visit the website here . Here's to a great afternoon of performances on Sunday!

Hi all, Hope you are enjoying your holidays. Click here to find the performance schedule for after half term. Take ownership, get organised and be prepared. Any questions please ask. D&G

Year 11, I hope preparations for the creative task are going well. Click here for a copy of the guide given to you in the last lesson before Easter. See you all very soon! Mr Guinane

Year 12, I stumbled across an article today on postmodernism ( Page 1 here , Page 2 here ) (apologies for the quality, it was from the book Information is Beautiful, which has an excellent website, completely unrelated to AS Music, that can be found here ). It might be useful background information as you revise Tavener's The Lamb (see YouTube revision videos below). Lots of material on this piece talks about t89he stylistic features of postmodernism found in Tavener's set work. You may also however come across the phrases  'New Simplicity' , or even 'Holy Minimalism' . It is worth doing some reading on these styles, though the stylistic features we have studied will apply to any of the terms. Thanks, Mr Guinane

Please find below, for your listening pleasure, a selection of cadenzas from famous classical concertos. As you know, cadenzas are found at the end of the first (fast) movement of a three movement concerto. Characteristic features of the cadenza were: it was unaccompanied: it was for the solo instrument alone (although the orchestra might creep in near the end of the cadenza) the tempo was free: the soloist would often vary the tempo, using rubato or perhaps starting off slowly and accelerating towards the end of the solo it was often based on material from earlier in the movement it showed off the soloist’s virtuosity by including rapid scales, arpeggios, ornamentation, a wide register and so on the cadenza was either written out by the composer, composed by the soloist, or by another composer the cadenza almost always happened at the same point in the movement: near the end, just before the coda cadenzas often end with a long trill by the soloist, which is ...

Dear Year 11, I would just like to draw your attention to Ms Doan's amazing Pinterest and Pearltree resources for revising Areas of Study 2 and 3 (see diagram below).

Here is an overview of Spotify playlists for the GCSE Areas of Study.  Click on the names to take you to the playlists. Area of Study 2 (Shared Music) African A Cappella Music Baroque Classics Solo song Gamelan Area of Study 3 (Dance Music) Waltz Disco Bhangra Line Dancing Tango Club Dance Irish Jig and Reel Area of Study 4 (Descriptive Music) Programme Music Film Music More descriptive Music Pirates of the Carribbean

Dear 13, We hope you are enjoying your holidays, getting some rest and working hard. Please find below links to the Edexcel notes for your set works. We hope they will be of some use, but please remember that your own notes, intelligible scribbles in your anthologies and memories of vocalising the Poulenc will be far more valuable. Please let us know if you have any questions. Ms Doan and Mr Guinane Applied Music Johann Sebastian Bach Leonard Bernstein Giovanni Gabrieli Jerry Goldsmith Baris Melampaham (not a guy) Instrumental Music Johannes Brahms Miles Davis Claude Debussy Anthony Holborne Francis Poulenc Steve Reich Joseph Haydn

Dear 12, I hope you are enjoying your holidays, getting some rest and working hard. Please find below links for the Edexcel notes for each of your set works. I hope you will find them useful, but please remember the notes you have taken in class, your annotations in your anthologies and any other work you have done will be far more useful as you revise. Please email me if you have any concerns. Mr Guinane Vocal Music John Dowland Howlin' Wolf Claudio Monteverdi Van Morrison Franz Schubert John Tavener Instrumental Music Claude Debussy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Francis Poulenc Steve Reich