No. 123
The Trusty Servant unison and then all start singing at different times when they were more confident. Otherwise, a lot of the counterpoint is inspired by Herbert Howells, though not the harmony, because I spent far too long harmonising like Howells as a student.
JT: I also hear some influence from Arvo Pärt, or at least from his instrumental music...
OT: I am a bit of a sucker for anything Baltic, really! But any Pärt in the Magnificat comes through the route of Sacred Minimalism along with Tavener. I use a lot of minimalist techniques such as paradiddles, and I don’ t know a lot of choral music which does that.
JT: That is usually restricted to the 60s Downtown NY school of minimalism.
OT: Yes, Steve Reich is a huge inspiration. And learning to judge when you’ ve earnt the right to move on from an idea in a piece of music, how to pace it.
JT: Where do you see yourself in relation to certain schools and traditions of composition?
OT: I would like to place myself with the Sacred Minimalists, as opposed to the English Choral tradition of Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Howells. But I suppose there is a bit of crossover.
JT: And often nowadays, when it’ s increasingly rare to find truly original art, it’ s the combination of two unacquainted elements which can achieve its own originality.
OT: Indeed. JT: What does the future hold for you?
OT: I have got a Passion to write. The marvellous Lucia Quinault is writing the libretto, so I can’ t wait to get cracking on that. I am waiting until my 33rd birthday, because that’ s the same age that Jesus was when he died, so it’ s the right time to compose a Passion.
JT: Penderecki also wrote his St Luke Passion at that age, right?
OT: Indeed, a wonderful piece. I think my Passion will be even more Bachian, but there is only so much I can pre-plan stylistically.
JT: Thank you very much for your time.
Update from the Crown and Manor Club
Rupert Hill( F, 67-72), Club Council member, reports:
‘ Crown and Manor’ will be a name familiar to even the oldest living Wykehamists: the association of the Crown and Manor Club with Winchester College has existed since 1926, when Arthur and Harold Llewellyn Smith and a number of fellow OWs established The Crown Club as a boys’ club, near Kingsland Road in Hackney. In 1939, the Llewellyn Smiths managed to acquire the premises of another, older, boys’ club, founded in 1903, the New North Road Club, or‘ Hoxton Manor’ as it had become by then. The two clubs were merged as Crown and Manor Club, Hoxton, and Hoxton Manor’ s site in Wiltshire Row, adjoining the Grand Union Canal, has been the Club’ s home ever since.
Much about the Club has changed since 1939, but much, too, has stayed the same. Not the least of the continuity has been provided by Win Coll, which is the only one of the great public schools still to maintain an involvement with an organization of this sort. The Club’ s trustee-directors – or Council, in the Club’ s parlance – have always included several OWs( there are six at the moment). One of the Club’ s two assured sources of income is the old Winchester College Mission, whose funds were subsumed in the present-day Wykeham Crown and Manor Trust 25 years ago. The Trust now holds an investment portfolio of roughly £ 900,000; its trustees are all OWs, and include the Headmaster ex officio.
The Club’ s essential purpose and its activities also remain unchanged. Superficially, the Club‘ keeps kids off the streets’; in reality, it does far more than that. It is an organized, activities-based youth club, and not just a social centre. It is open every weekday evening, and the average attendance exceeds 50. And it is entirely voluntary: the boys and young men – the members – come because they want to, and because the Club’ s activities attract them. Not surprisingly, it is hugely popular with parents.
Sports activities remain at the heart of the Club – and the achievements over the past year have been excellent. In football, the Under 14s and Under 16s both won the National Association Fivea-Side Championships and the Under 17s won their division in the Mid-Week League. Past members play with football clubs in the highest divisions in England and Germany. In athletics, the Club had three top-ten finalists in the National Cross-Country Championships. Tabletennis and basketball continue to be well supported, and this year saw a tentative first stab at fencing.
But this is not just a sporting club. For many years, the Club has run classes, and it remains a requirement for every member who participates in sport to attend an academic class. Here it is not so easy to quantify the Club’ s
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