|
|
The Vision of Dame Christian
Holst's masque, The Vision of Dame Christian, was performed in its entirety at St Paul's Girls' School on 1 st July, exactly 100 years after its performance at the opening of the school's music wing - which includes the sound-proofed room where Holst was able to compose in peace. The Masque was written and premiered in 1909 in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the foundation of St Paul's School in West London. It tells the story of Dame Christian, the mother of John Colet, Dean of St Paul's and founder of the School. Her "vision" includes the foundation of the Girls' school nearly 400 years later, in 1904. Holst joined St Paul's Girls' School as singing master in autumn 1905. His composition of the Masque music cemented his place in the school's history and his friendship with its first High Mistress, Frances Gray. For the successful 1909 performance only three Paulina instrumentalists played with Holst's pupils from Morley College, but by 1913 Holst had formed and trained a school orchestra, and was able to claim to Edwin Evans that "all the performers were my own pupils (choir and orchestra of about 120) and the music is quite elaborate - not a bit the ordinary school girl stuff. Finally it contains my best tune - a solemn dance." In the same letter Holst wrote that the Masque was "to be done every ten years and the music is not to be done outside the school". This restriction, combined with the fact that the words and chorus parts were both privately printed, resulted in the music not being widely known. Despite frequent early performances, the most recent complete performance until 1 st July was in about 1950.
Deliberately not a recreation of the 1913 event, the captivating and memorable performance on 1 July involved over 200 pupils, including those with speaking parts and five dancers. The school's carefully preserved collection of manuscripts and other artefacts relating to the first performances, displayed in the Singing Hall, provided a fascinating insight into Holst's attention to detail as he matched the performance to the capabilities of his pupils and the school environment. Unlike the first performance, the large choir was on stage throughout. In contrast to the three woodwind players in 1909, there were over 10 times that number in the large orchestra. In a reflection of the first High Mistress's scholarly and elegantly printed text for the 1909 performance, Dr Corissa Gould's programme notes explored the history of Holst's Masque in the life of the school. Frances Gray wrote in 1931 that gatherings of Paulinas "seldom separate without having sung through the Masque music". After the performance on 1 st July, I watched a small group of Old Paulinas wending their way homewards whilst singing one of Holst's choruses in the street.
Philippa Tudor
Musicians from St Paul's Girls' School are performing at the Holst Birthday Concert on 21 September, including Holst's 8-part Ave Maria and his St Paul's Suite.
|
|
Millicent Lisle Woodforde
Philippa Tudor has also written an erudite and interesting article about Millicent Lisle Woodforde and her paintings of the Holsts' home at Barnes. Her article is too long to reproduce here, but you can find it on the ' About Holst' page of the Museum website
|
|
Membership
If you are not already a subscribing Member of the Trust, please do consider joining and also tell your friends. Not only would you have the satisfaction of giving financial and general support to the Museum, but you would also enjoy many other benefits. The Museum leaflet contains an application form, which can also be downloaded from the Museum website.
Annual Membership rates are:
Single £15, Joint £20, Family £25, Overseas £25, Corporate £50, Benefactor £60, Joint Benefactor £100, Corporate Benefactor £300.
For further details, please contact the Membership Secretary, Catriona Smith
If you would like to become a Volunteer at the Museum, and thus a Volunteer Member, please contact the Curator, Laura Kinnear (tel 01242 524846)
|
|
Welcome
The Trustees would like to welcome Alex Bowcutt, Barbara Johnstone, Sarah Jones, Charles Waine and Sue Walker who have newly joined the Trust as Volunteers.
|
|
|
|
|
|