MUSIC
T he annual House Music Competition is the biggest house event each year, and one that I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in since Year 7. This year, however, I was responsible for delivering the coveted trophy for Marlow for a second consecutive year. No pressure, then. House Music is actually made up of four separate competitions: House Part- Song, House Electric, House Choral, and House Instrumental. The first of these is the Part-Song competition; an acapella singing contest that even the characters of Pitch Perfect could be proud of. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the event is choosing a song: as some houses often forget, this is entirely dependant on the musical ability of the boys in the house. Although a Bach chorale or a tight barbershop quartet sounds like the perfect (some say obvious) choice, these always take an incredible amount of work. Instead, melodic, soulful song is needed, with plenty of repetition and harmonies in order to guarantee a tuneful sound, instead of having confused Year 10s trying to remember extremely technical Baroque counterpoint. Therefore, I picked Stand By Me and Ain’t No Sunshine ; our simple yet eloquent renditions of these classics meant that we were fortunate enough to win the competition for a second consecutive year. The other incredibly frustrating aspect of this competition is personnel, and this year Marlowe’s initially strong team diminished from six members to three in a matter of days. Most dramatically, this included one withdrawal on the day of the performance, forcing two changes of piece in as many days, and several new arrangements. Despite this, the standard of the competition has risen exponentially over the years and I hope it continues to do so.
THE COMMITMENTS
The newest addition to the competition’s line-up, House Electric, is perhaps the most musically progressive addition to the department in recent years. Immediately, this part of the competition has leapt to being a favourite of both boys and staff. As with House Part-Song, song choice is the most important aspect – a boring rendition of any rock song will inevitably not capture the audience. So Marlowe’s entry in this year’s competition was an energetic performance of Teacher’s Pet from the film School of Rock . To my surprise, the musicians who played electronic instruments were extremely willing to take part and therefore the process was thoroughly enjoyable as a result. The willingness and commitment of some boys to take on new challenges for the sake of the event – Greg South, for example, learning the bass guitar from scratch to perform with his house – encapsulates what the spirit of the competition is all about. The component of the competition worth the most points and, therefore, often the highlight of House Music is the House Choral competition. This is often the performance that everyone remembers from year to year. Running this competition is particularly difficult because it is the only element that includes all the age ranges from Year 7 to Year 13. With the Lower School conveniently making the competition compulsory for Year 7 and 8 boys, I spent days thinking about the best approach to engage and encourage them. Would it be a kind and encouraging leadership? Or a strict dictatorship with no nonsense allowed? In fact, neither of these things worked; I soon learnt that the best way to get boys to focus was… sweets. By promising sweets at the end of every session, boys would return next week. Similarly, by promising sweets at the start of every session, boys would behave during it. I spent a lot of
As the most active musician in his house, it fell to Zach Fox (Year 13) to experience the blessing and curse of putting together an entry. Here he explains what it takes
Photographs: Daniel Shearing
Above: A proud Zach Fox on winning the House Music competition for Marlowe, for the second year running
123
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker