Music

The annual Harmony Competition was held on Sunday night with each house presenting a group of close harmony singers. This year there were some amazing entries. Nearly half of all the arrangements had been written by pupils especially for this competition, which in itself is incredible, as they were all well written. The standard of the performances was the highest it has been in recent memory, with several boys and girls houses singing well enough to win.

Robin Tyson was our adjudicator – who better than a former member of the world’s most famous close harmony group The King’s Singers to come and choose the best song. He didn’t disappoint. He made some fascinating observations which gave us a glimpse of the skills required to be a successful international close-harmony singer. Blend, tuning, diction and balance were amongst the constituent parts of this style of performing he mentioned; and he was able to point out good examples of these in different houses’ performances.

Field House won, with Eleanor Holroyd’s arrangement of The Peanut Vendor. The girls delivered a highly polished performance. The Garden came second with Beggin’. Mr Bowley, Director of Music said "I was thrilled by the standard this year. The gap between the winners and many of the other entrants had all but disappeared – I am glad I didn’t have to decide! Congratulations to all the participants; their hard work really paid off, it was a wonderful evening."