1965 The school’s centenary was marked by a number of special events including a production of Jabberwocky, specially written by Bourgeois, at Guildford Civic Hall and also a major service in Guildford Cathedral which was later released as a record. Bourgeois was recognised as one of Britain’s most prolific composers with 102 symphonies to his name, the first of which he started writing while still at school. Reviewing the year, The Cranleighan’s schoolboy editor concluded: “The present writer, like many others, was entered for this school on account of its musical predilections, and none of those who have sought out Cranleigh for the musical training it has provided over the past forty years at least has ever had cause to regret the choice.”
1966 The House Instrumental Competition was scrapped and replaced with a music festival as the music staff felt that the latter ceased to fulfil any useful function, other than “providing someone with a prize.”
1967 Bizet’s Carmen was staged in the Speech Hall with contributions from Priorsfield, Bellairs and Elmbridge schools, plus the Cranleigh Village Choral Society, and a professional London orchestra. It attracted considerable media attention. The Financial Times said “one experienced anew the miracle of Bizet’s opera.”
1967 Hilary Davan Wetton succeeded Armstong as Director of Music. At twenty-three, he was the youngest director in the country. “He saw it as his job to bring music to every boy in Cranleigh,” Lance Marshall, his colleague, wrote, “not only to the naturally musical.”
1969 The New Music School was opened. That same year the prospectus said that one hundred and sixty boys – almost a third – were receiving music lessons from five permanent and twelve visiting teachers and there were two orchestras, chamber music groups and choral societies. In a throwback to the early days, professional performers were also brought in for subscription concerts. Lessons in voice training and solo singing were introduced.
1972 At the Orchestra for Fun evening for the first time pupils in both the audience and those performing were allowed to wear casual clothes, while some were able to sit on rugs in front of the stage. Orchestra for Fun had been introduced four years earlier with two aims. One was to give a concert to the school of quite a good standard and the other was to give members of the instrument-playing school an opportunity to experience the high standard of professional technique and put that to immediate use.
1973 The Helen Wareham competition started in memory of the wife of the previous bursar. Known affectionately to peripatetic teachers as the ‘Eddie Waring’, it immediately showcased Cranleigh music at its best, as it continues to do so to this day. A number of those who have won it have gone on to professional careers, while others have returned years later to judge. In 1983 and 1984, for example, Michael Bennett (2 North 1984) (violin) and Matt Vine (Cubitt 1985) (piano) won and both went on to professional careers as tenors. In 1992 a singer, treble Tom Hedley (2&3 South 1996), became the first ever fifth-former to win it. Bourgeois returned to adjudicate and said, with justification, that musical standards at Cranleigh had “gone up out of all recognition.” At the other end of the scale, popular lunchtime concerts allowed a wide variety of performers of all standards to showcase their progress.
1974 One of new Director of Music Joe Polglase’s first productions is a recreation of the Last Night of the Proms in the Speech Hall.
1975 Every Woman is a Science, a revue of sketches and music, is staged in the Barn. It is the first all-girl production written by Nan Wills and the five girls involved.
