WW II put a strain on school music, Benjamin Britten played at the Speech Hall and West Side Story became a landmark production.
1940 A Gramophone Society was formed but it limited its repertoire of performances to classical music. It lasted two years. The Cranleighan noted that “music was being placed more and more in the background by such necessary activities as the Home Guard.”
1940 With many masters absent on war service, David Loveday hired Basil Alchin, the recently retired registrar at the Royal College of Music, to help maintain Cranleigh music. Alchin was in huge demand elsewhere and fitted in Cranleigh by arriving on a Thursday night and returning to London on Monday. “He made an enormous impact,” said Cyril Dashwood (1&4 South 1942), “introducing congregational singing in Chapel. He had the ability to bring out the best in one with both enthusiasm and willingness to work and enjoy playing.”
1942 Anthony Caesar (East 1942), the first of a number of exceptionally talented organists, left Cranleigh. He was soon followed by Christopher Dearnley (1 North 1948) and Richard Seal (1&4 South 1954). They were perhaps helped by the practice they got at Cranleigh due to the lack of any organ-playing masters for much of the war. They were succeeded by a remarkable number of talented organists, with more than a dozen going on to win Oxford and Cambridge scholarships.
1942 The Blue Lyres, the first band formed by and of boys, made its debut at the Christmas Concert. They were a dance band who unfortunately had little musical ability and a rigid six-song repertoire. Hired to perform at a fete in the village, they unleashed three numbers “fortunately outdoors” and were not called upon to play their second set. The Lyres, who provided entertainment of sorts throughout the war, continued until the late 1940s with an ever-changing line-up and variable success. The Cranleighan in 1946 stated their rehearsals were notable for the “hideous wailings coming from the Speech Hall” while a letter asked that “given Cranleigh claims to have a fine musical tradition should such things be allowed” adding the applause at one of their concerts was “because they had finished not because of their merits.”
1943 The Cranleigh Musical Society was reformed “for boys who wished to further their musical education.” In its first year it staged four concerts.
1945 The Cranleighan noted “an increase in the number of boys learning musical instruments. There are now twenty-one taking piano, two the violin and two cello.”
1946 The number of concerts was reduced because of the effects of petrol rationing and those that were held suffered from the absence of many usual supporters. This situation continued for the next couple of years.
1946 Robin Wood, the Director of Music, introduced Subscription Concerts, a series of concerts held in the Speech Hall on Sunday afternoons with the aim of bringing a variety of musical styles and professional musicians to the school. This continues to this day, albeit not under the same name.
1947 Benjamin Britten played piano accompaniment in one of the first Subscription Concerts in the Speech Hall, featuring his compositions and other more traditional ones to which he added his own modern accompaniments.
1948 The School Choral Society, which had ceased in 1939, in conjunction with the Village Choral Society and the Choir of St. Catherine’s, Bramley gave a performance of Haydn’s Oratorio, The Creation in the Speech Hall.
1949 A recording of the choir singing two psalms was made in the Chapel in the Michaelmas Term and released on a 78rpm disc. On one side was Psalm XC (to an arrangement by Barnaby) and on the other Hail, Gladdening Light (Charles Wood)
1951 Handel’s Belshazzar, which included professional musicians and singers to supplement those from the school, played to packed houses and rave reviews. It was a clear statement that while for many sport dominated, music was still a force.
1953 Jarod Armstrong arrived as Director of Music to succeed Wood in 1953. He said he found “an excellent chapel choir and a sixth form of great ability.” The choir had remained a constant since the earliest days, even if the fortunes of music overall had ebbed and flowed. They were regularly asked to sing at Guildford Cathedral during its lengthy construction, and the Cranleigh/St Catherine’s window at the end of the south aisle shows how strong that link was.
1954 New headmaster Henry March championed music and by 1958 was able to boast that more pupils than ever were learning instruments. He also introduced musical appreciation into the timetable.
1955 The first Carol Service, a Service of Five Lessons and Nine Carols, was held in Chapel.
1956 The production of Julius Caesar includes an orchestra almost entirely made up of pupils.
1957 The debut of the Devonport Stomper, a jazz band, which functioned into the early 1960s and played end-of-term concerts and even pubs on a sailing trip to the Norfolk Broads. Two members of the band, Tsunekazu Matsudaira (2 North 1962) and Barry Stephenson (2&3 South 1962) were still performing together almost 50 years later.
1958 Music featured prominently in an article on the school in the Illustrated London News. Jared Armstrong, the Director of Music, said that anyone who could hold an instrument was assembled in the Speech Hall for the publicity shot, including the Headmaster on double bass. “It looked good but nobody would ever have wanted to listen to anything they might have tried to play,” Armstrong said. “It was just for show.”
1963 Menotti’s Amahl and Handel’s Messiah were staged on one evening. For the first half the audience faced south (away from the stage), turning their chairs round at the interval to watch the second half.
1964 West Side Story, the first of the modern musicals staged by the school, brought Cranleigh to national attention with extensive newspaper and radio coverage. Derek Bourgeois (2&3 South 1959), at the time in the Common Room, had numerous contacts in the music world and so was able to persuade some very talented musicians to take part. The brass section was formed almost entirely from players from the London Symphony Orchestra.
