No . 138 The Trusty Servant before the membership expanded to the rest of the school - Jonathan Sanders , Simon Halsey , me , Philip Rees and Tony . Having two counter-tenors , tenor and baritone already , it was the low notes we lacked , so Tony sang bass . He could reach low C - about as low as anyone sings outside Russia .
There was no internet : Tony sourced music in handwritten arrangements or transcriptions ; for Renaissance repertoire , printed copies were found within the school . We ranged from close harmony to the music of the old masters , taking inspiration from the King ’ s Singers . We borrowed a few of their arrangements , found bootleg ones , and group members created their own . There was memorable Tallis : we travelled to Oxford in Tony ’ s Morris Traveller to be the sixth of Spem in Alium ’ s eight choirs ; there were five Lenten mornings singing the Lamentations in Chantry , the perfect , atmospheric space for five voices to sing in . There were Bach fugues - singing these got us a disapproving review in the Wykehamist - but , what better way to understand the highest art of polyphony , from inside ?
Tony led the way but didn ’ t exactly direct , believing that these sort of small groups should lead themselves , in the way of chamber music . He brought wider musical insights such as from seeing Colin Davis directing orchestras in his fiery days , the Swingle Singers , and Japanese musicians achieving perfect musical coordination with no visible directing or guiding signals . There was intelligent conversation . We made mince pies and drank coffee . He guided us gently towards civilized adulthood while we had enormous fun .
Simon Phillips ( B , 73-77 ): Tony never taught me in the classroom , but given the breadth of his extracurricular interests , particularly in music , it was inevitable our paths would cross . In fact I met him at my very first School Orchestra rehearsal because , much to my consternation , I was asked to share a stand with him at the back of the second violins . We were fortunately both pretty average violinists so this turned out not to be as daunting as I feared . I won ’ t forget his strange insistence on having the music stand as low as possible , which I doubt did anything to improve our technique !
We both also sang in the Kingsgate Singers who , at the end of my first term , went on a tour to Germany and France . Tony wrote an amusing report of the trip for The Wykehamist ( 6th June 1973 ), cleverly managing to mention every member of the choir at least once .
Then there was Cantores . I was a member for several years although , as a non-Furleyite , not quite a founder member . Tony was a wonderful organiser , enabler and enthusiast and in rehearsal was quite happy to take criticism and direction along with the rest of us .
Henry Thompson ( CoRo , 62-00 ; HoDo A , 78-93 ): For no reason other than mere cultural snobbishness , I have always looked down on Morris dancing , its jingling bells , flapping handkerchiefs , hats with flowers and somewhat clumsy prancing around ; I tend to shun the spectacle in Winchester High Street and would never have dreamt of actually taking part in it - had not Tony Ayres prevailed upon me to do so . Tony was Furley ’ s house tutor throughout my fifteen years as housedon , and one of his major contributions was to produce nearly a dozen house plays , one of which was The Roses of Eyam , elaborately staged and including a splendid pageant - with Morris dancing . The producer prevailed on me and on his fellow house tutor Andrew Wolters to overcome our joint inhibitions , don the bells and flowery hats , wave the handkerchiefs and lead the dancing . Oh , the embarrassment - but inspired by Tony ’ s directing we duly pranced around to the audience ’ s evident pleasure as well as our own .
In addition to the house plays , Tony contributed enormously to Furley ’ s music in the choral and instrumental competitions year by year , leaving a legacy of gifted amateurs as well as a significant number of distinguished professionals who recall his influence to this day with warm appreciation : all those evening rehearsals in Grubbing Hall , embodying the all-round education afforded by boarding school .
John Cullerne ( CoRo , 98- ): During Michaelmas term in 1995 I took on a shared timetable at WinColl to cover a sabbatical . I was writing up my D . Phil . and worrying about the large overdraft accumulating during my studies . I had answered an advert that had been posted ( by Dr Cattermole ( CoRo , 76-00 ) on the notice boards of the Theoretical Physics Department . AJPA interviewed me , and I learned so much in the hour or so that we spent together . He got out one of the “ Winchester Green Boards ” ( of course he was instrumental in their design ), which are still used to teach electrical circuit theory , and connected a circuit with three bulbs and a battery . Unusually , one bulb shone with normal brightness , but the others through which it was fed were off , and he asked how I might explain this to a class of 13-year-olds .
This was my first introduction into an approach to pedagogy and science that has stuck with me ever since . Science often challenges the intuition : surely bulbs that are off have no current passing through them , but the bulb that shone meant that this could not be . I realised this was more than an interview : he was teaching me how to teach . I became the 13-year-old and could not wait to get my hands on the apparatus myself . What I did next gave me such satisfaction because it brought a smile to AJPA . I put an extra cell into the circuit and all three bulbs began to shine !
I was living in Oxford , so I had to travel down to Winchester to do my teaching ,
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