A Week of Music at Hope

Hope’s Music Department prides itself upon the range of music and musical experiences it offers its students, and the strong links it has with artistic organisations in the city. This week was typical:

Monday

Third-year students arrive at 9am for a lecture and seminar session in the course Studies in Music since 1900 with tutor Robin Hartwell. Some of the group have just returned from an intensive course held with university students from a number of EU countries in Umea, in the north of Sweden. With tutor David Walters, they’ve had a busy and very rewarding time working on projects with Swedish schoolchildren, and after temperatures of -26 degrees they are finding Liverpool positively tropical! The session concentrates upon American composer Milton Babbitt’s controversial article ‘Who cares if you listen?’ and a lively debate ensues.

Meanwhile, at a primary school a few hundred yards from the Cornerstone, Stephen Pratt is attending the first meeting of the management committee of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s In Harmony project. In Harmony is a major development, with the government investing over £1m on this community music scheme for the area of West Everton, right on the doorstep of the Cornerstone. Liverpool Hope is a major partner in the project, and as it develops, it will provide opportunities for students to become involved in work with school children and community groups.

In the afternoon, Mike Brocken’s Year 2 Popular Music Studies class is concerned with the profile and effect of reggae in the UK, and after two good presentations by students the class is soon absorbed in discussing the significance of reggae to white youth. One undergraduate remarks that reggae really is a ‘perfect popular music topic to study’. At the end of the afternoon, Hope Park Voices, our choral group based at the ‘other’ campus, continues its preparations with Music Education tutor Mary Black for participation in the Church Colleges Choir Festival, to be held at York Minster.

In the evening, Stephen Pratt attends a ‘Thank-You’ event hosted by Liverpool City Council at the Echo Arena at the waterfront. The ‘thank-you’ is for participation and contribution to Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. Hope’s Cornerstone Festival and Music Department played a significant part in the 08 celebrations, and amongst other events hosted the première of a new work by Steve Reich.

Tuesday

In the morning, first-year students are taken through a practical workshop on library resources with music-librarian Fiona Hair. Fiona’s brief on this occasion is to look particularly at electronic resources that are accessed through Hope’s Library Resources website. After lunch, Hope Professor and internationally acclaimed pianist Joanna MacGregor meets a group of student composers who are writing works for piano. After looking at and discussing their work, Joanna introduces them to A Little Suite for Christmas by George Crumb, which uses a range of unusual effects. Within a few minutes the students are writing their own ‘George Crumb’ pieces. Just down the corridor, the first-year students are listening to a group of RLPO players performing composition exercises that they have written in the style of Corelli. Several students e-mail the tutor, Helen Thomas, to say how helpful it was to hear their work ‘live’ – one comments that he has only just realised they were writing eighteenth-century dance music!

In the early evening the Hope Wind band, run by Music Education tutor Anne James, rehearses for a concert. The band, which is making excellent progress, draws together current and former students and members of the local community. Some students go straight from this to play in the South Liverpool Rehearsal Orchestra, a long-established community orchestra which is hosted by Hope, and which provides students with the opportunity to play a wide range of orchestral repertoire, and, on occasion, to try out their conducting or compositions. This week, students from Hope are also playing in the Merseyside Youth Orchestra, the Joint Universities Orchestra, The Metropolitan Cathedral Orchestra and the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra.

Wednesday

Joanna MacGregor runs a piano masterclass for A-level pupils from local and regional schools and colleges. The performers are put through their paces, playing a range of music from Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ sonata to Joanna’s own Lowside Blues, which has been set as a Grade 7 piece this year. Hope’s music department opens its doors several times a year for A-level pupils to come and sample life as a music student. Meanwhile, Year-3 composers are working with a string quartet from the RLPO. The students have begun a project to write a piece for the quartet to perform: this is the first session, and students are trying out short sections and listening to extracts of twentieth-century string quartets. The session is led by the RLPO players, with Robin Hartwell and Stephen Pratt, and focuses on texture and timbre. The students are astonished when the quartet gives a terrific performance of a movement from Shostakovich’s 8th Quartet, only to admit that they hadn’t played it for 6 years and were more or less sight-reading!

In the early afternoon, the Chamber Choir, directed by Philip Duffy, continues its rehearsals in preparation for the final large-scale concert of the year - a Haydn Bicentenary Concert with orchestra and soloists that will take place in the Great Hall at the Cornerstone. Just as Chamber Choir finishes, the Big Band swings into action, followed by the Jazz/Funk ensemble at 6pm. At 6.15, Mike Brocken gives a talk in the Music Department’s Research Seminar Series, which, whilst intended for the postgraduate students, is open to undergraduates – a good number of these turn up. Mike’s talk is based on his research into those ‘other’ popular-music soundtracks of Liverpool. It’s a detailed and passionate talk, and discussion afterwards goes on long after the anticipated finishing time.

Thursday

… is an audition day, and music administrator Karen Quinn meets and greets candidates before they are introduced to the three members of staff on hand to talk to them about the course they have applied for. There’s some listening, some writing, and in the afternoon a chance to perform to Stephen Pratt and David Walters. Whilst this is going on, Helen Thomas lectures to second years on Beethoven, and looks particularly at historical approaches to the categorisation of composers and their works. Beforehand, Robin Hartwell has met with students to discuss options for studying abroad – Hope has strong links in Europe and America, and there are good opportunities to spend a term studying at a University overseas. One third-year student, Sarah Robinson, spent a term recently at the University in Angers, France. The University laid on an intensive language course for her before she started, and not only did she have a marvellous time studying ‘musique’, but she is now a fluent French speaker.

Musical performance students have a workshop with RLPO clarinettist Mandy Burvill, who talks to them about practising and rehearsing, the art of ‘performance’, and listens to them perform and gives some tips for future work.

In the afternoon, third-year electroacoustic students continue to work on pieces for their final submission both in the electronic studio and the music technology laboratory with tutor Ian Percy. Ian has just completed all the works needed for his PhD submission, and is looking forward to hearing one of them at a concert to be given by Ensemble 10/10 in the near future. Philip Duffy is in discussion with Liverpool Jazz to discuss the possibility of a jazz series in the new Capstone Centre for Music, Innovation and Performance, which opened in March 2010. The building represents a very considerable investment in Music by the University. As well as providing space for current students to study, compose, perform and enjoy the performances of others, the Centre also provides support for recent Hope graduates to develop and promote their own careers.

Students from all three years are preparing for the evening’s Open Mic night. Organised by Chloe Mullett, these are hugely popular and well-attended. This one will feature Liverpool Hope Vocal Group (performing a cappella versions of Yazoo’s ‘Only You’ and an anti-apartheid South African township song, ‘Bird of Paradise’) as well as diverse contributions from over 55 students, including original songs and new arrangements. Tonight’s performance takes place in the largest of the theatre spaces, and the students are joined by Ben Gordon and Bryan Johnson, former members of top Liverpool band The Dead 60s, who work with popular-music students to help them develop their performance and rehearsal techniques.

Friday

Second-year performers are busy preparing for their lunchtime recital, to be held the following week. Mike Brocken has invited celebrated Liverpool DJ Tony Snell to talk to his students, and David Walters has a number of individual piano pupils coming for their weekly lessons. Hope’s instrumental and vocal teaching is undertaken by ‘in-house’ specialist tutors like David, as well as a team of hourly paid tutors. These are very carefully selected, and students lucky enough to be awarded an RLPO Scholarship will be taught by major players in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Chloe Mullett e-mails the first-year students to inform them of events that have been laid on for them in the next few months under the ArtsCard scheme – these include RLPO concerts, Bench fashion show/Battle of the Bands, Shober’s dance/spoken word performance as part of the Leap Dance Festival 2009, Tom Waits’ talk, Late at Tate, and much more. Chloe then leads the first session on Britpop with the first-years, exploring ideas about identity, selective representations of nationhood and the influence of public radio policy.

In a course called Music in Contemporary Thought, third-year students look at the concept of ‘noise’ in contemporary music with Robin Hartwell. The students have attended an exhibition of sonic-art work at the FACT centre in Liverpool, and Robin has arranged for them to meet with Ross Dalziel, a sound artist based there, to discuss the exhibition.

Finally, Joanna MacGregor takes the stage at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall to direct a concert of works with the Manchester Camerata from the piano. The programme opens with Britten’s Young Apollo, and before the interval it’s Mozart’s early Piano Concerto in E flat, K271. After the interval, she plays her arrangements of Tangos by Piazzolla, before bringing the house down with James MacMillan’s highly extrovert Piano Concerto no.2. Pupils who attended her masterclass at Hope on Wednesday can be spotted on their feet, cheering with the best of them….

And on Saturday?

Members of Hope Music and Music Education staff are closely involved in a surprise party being given for John Moseley, who is celebrating his 60th birthday and the announcement that he is to retire from his position as Head of Music at St Edward’s College in Liverpool. Strong links exist between St Edward’s and Hope, and Philip Duffy, Vanessa Williamson (Hope’s Head of Vocal Studies) and Mary Black are all taking part in the concert. Robin Hartwell and Stephen Pratt meet up again with former Hope student Louise Ashcroft, now working as an actress in musical theatre in London. She tells them how much Hope has meant to her, and on Sunday sends a message:

Liverpool Hope and the Music Department have had a massive impact on my life. Indeed, it is paramount in shaping me into the person, musician and singer I am today…. It was a joy to meet up with you again and hear that the Music Department is continuing from strength to strength.

Last Updated ( Friday, 13 January 2012 )

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