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Lord Williams's School, Thame



It's been a pleasure revisiting Lord Williams's School for a couple of days this week. It's so encouraging to meet their multiple GCSE classes, a very respectable showing of A-level students and three wonderful class music teachers. Music is constantly being hammered out around the department, and the cheerfully workmanlike atmosphere brought to mind Andy Warhol's maxim (pictured, and coincidentally spotted by me in Thame High Street during my stay): "Don't Think About Making Art, Just Get It Done".

 

On this visit I was struck by the way students were making use of models while starting their new compositions. One young GCSE student was carefully copying out a short chord sequence from Nuages, while next to him someone else was notating a Pink Floyd-style drum pattern. I guess these two musical styles seem equally historical to students born in the 2010s.

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JUDITH WEIR

Composer

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© Judith Weir, 2020

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