Category: Group news

My life and music

Title of the first meeting of the new season

Apology: the committee would like to apologise for those who were unable to make entry last evening. The main gates are usually left open for us but were securely locked last evening. We hope this will not happen again.

September 2026

I suspect for most people, their musical tastes evolve through their lifetime. Early experiences are likely to be from more popular sources with memorable tunes and lyrics which may chime in with experiences you were having at that time in your life. As time goes by, your tastes change and new composers or songwriters enter your life sometimes quite suddenly. Music you may have heard before and meant nothing, suddenly strikes a chord and a new vista of listening opens up. Music – and other art forms – have this capacity to touch us at an emotional level and as we go through life, our affinity to different composers and musical forms changes with us.

It was these themes which Roy Bexon (pictured) touched on with his presentation last evening. Like many people of a certain vintage, they have lived through some exciting times on the musical front. This applies to the technology – stereo, the development of the LP, then hifi – all have had their effects on people’s ability to enjoy music, and to the range and styles of music being created. Recently there have been CDs and now streaming.

Roy took us through his life of music. He is president of the Salisbury Music Society and has been so for a number of years.

As you can see from the playlist below it is an eclectic list to say the least. Roy is a keen singer and he spoke of his participation in concerts here and in Germany.

He spoke of his first experience, the Walt Disney piece from Pinocchio and played Paul McCartney’s Eleanor Rigby composition with the Beatles: an early if not the earliest, example of pop groups using orchestral strings. His gradual appreciation of Mahler and Bach is also evident.

  1. Leigh Harline, Ned Washington – “When you wish upon a Star” from the soundtrack of Pinocchio – Cliff Edwards and the Disney Studio Chorus
  2. John Lennon, Paul McCartney – “Eleanor Rigby” – The Beatles
  3. Judy Collins – “Albatross”, from the album “Wildflowers”
  4. J.S Bach – “Kyrie Eleison” from Mass in B minor BWV 232
  5. Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3, 5th Movement (beginning) – “Bimm Bamm”)
  6. Claudio Monteverdi – Vespers of 1610 – No. 7 – Duo Seraphim
  7. Vaughan Williams – Suite for Viola and Orchestra (1934) – Ballad
  8. Benjamin Britten – War Requiem (excerpt)
  9. Tylman Susato  – Danserye (excerpt) – David Munrow
  10. Nigel Westlake – That’ll Do Pig, That’ll Do, from film “Babe” (1995)
  11. Jay Ungar & Molly Mason – Ashokan Farewell

Interval

  1. Giuseppe Verdi – Tuba Mirum from the Messa da Requiem
  2. Richard Stilgoe – “Mrs Beamish”
  3. David Fanshawe – Call to Prayer (Kyrie) from African Sanctus (1972)
  4. Vaughan Williams – Alleluia from “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, Act IV
  5. Ieuan Rees-Davies – Close Thine Eyes – The Treorchy Male Voice Choir
  6. J.S Bach – “Dona Nobis Pacem” from Mass in B minor BWV 232.

It was a hugely enjoyable evening which nearly wasn’t with the gate problem. It is one of the distinctive features of the Society that we can enjoy such a wide range of interesting material from a speaker like Roy who has had a keen interest in the subject during his life.

The next meeting is on 12th October and is around the highly original American composer Steve Reich.

PC

New season gets underway

New season starts Monday

September 2026

Our first meeting in this new season will be at 7.30 on Monday 28th September 2026, when we shall be very pleased to welcome Roy Bexon of Salisbury Music Society who will present “My life and music”.

For existing members of the Society at this meeting our annual membership fee of £25 will be due.  This is unchanged from last year. It will be gratefully received in cash or by cheque payable to SRMS.  We regret cannot accept payment by card.  For visitors it will be £5.

The programme is available on our previous post and hard copies are in Salisbury, Wilton and Amesbury libraries and in the Tourism Office in Butcher Row. If members who live elsewhere know of other places to display them, space copies will be available on Monday.

Last year was a great success and we were pleased to welcome some new members. This year’s programme is equally interesting …

PC

New programme available!

Programme for 2026/27 season now available

We are pleased to publish our programme for the new season which contains lots of interest for listeners to classical music. The printed version will be in the Library and in the Tourism Centre in Salisbury soon.

You can see it is an interesting programme with a wide variety of topics and speakers on a diverse range of themes. We have a large screen in the room so we can display visual material as well.

Copies of the programme are in the TIC, Salisbury, and the libraries in Wilton, Amesbury and Salisbury.

At £5 – less if you sign up for the whole season – it is a good value evening. We kick off on 28th so we may see you there …

prog 26 27Download

Peter Curbishley

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Review of the year

June 2026

The chair of the Society, Peter Horwood, has written a brief review of the 2025/26 season just ended. He says “the Society continued to offer its members and visitors a hugely varied and entertaining programme across its fourteen evenings. Spanning centuries and genres, subjects included the music and life of Delius, Gordon Jacob, Eric Satie and Alan Hovhaness. Themed evenings including a mixed selection of music for wind ensemble, a fascinating lecture on Black musicians in England 1500-1800 and the music they played, and an interesting evening on Iberian music. The latter provided a reminder of the fine, but unaccountably neglected music of the Portuguese composer, Jolly Braga Santos.

“A particularly memorable evening was provided by professional cellist Catherine Wilmers, who along with her selection of recorded music themed on cello and piano music by British women composers, took up her cello and played some memorable encores.  Catherine’s career included playing with several leading London orchestras and the Society was privileged to be visited by such a talented artist.  

“In addition, the Society held two members evenings where members were encouraged to bring along music to share and relate what they found particularly appealing about their chosen pieces.

“Another highlight from the season included an intriguing presentation titled ‘Murder, Mishap and Misfortune’ that related, with musical examples, the strange and unexpected deaths of lesser-known composers. Bizarrely this apparently grisly subject offered some moments of great amusement!”     

New season

The programme for the new season is all but complete with just a few text additions waiting finalising. It kicks off on Monday 28th September. It has a diverse range of presentations on music for brass, Steve Reich, 21st Century music, Schubert and much else. The addition of a screen in the Guide’s Centre means presentations can include visual material which adds interest and background.

We look forward to seeing you again in the Autumn.

Last meeting of the season

Iberian music was the subject of our last meeting
Another successful year completed

May 2026

The Society’s last meeting of the year ended on a high note with an evening devoted to music from the Iberian peninsula. But before discussing that, a few words about the season and the Society.

It has been a successful year with a diversity of interest and new discoveries. Although we are a ‘recorded’ music society we did actually have a ‘live’ recital this year when the celebrated ‘cellist Catherine Wilmers brought her instrument and played some pieces for us.

The Society can do what concerts find hard to do which is to explore the by-ways of the music scene, playing long-forgotten music by sometimes undeservedly long-forgotten composers. We can also focus on a single composers bringing to life some of their lesser known work.

We have a mixture of home grown presenters who gave excellent and well researched evenings about American composers, the English composer Delius and Eric Satie, the eccentric Frenchman. Others spoke about wind ensembles, Black musicians and an intriguing evening discussing the unexpected deaths of some composers. We welcomed guest presenters who spoke on the Ballets Russe and the work of Gordon Jacob.

Presentations have been helped in the last couple of years with a screen which enables visual presentations linked to our hi-fi. It broadens what we can play and allows us to watch and listen to an historic performance. It has had a definite and positive effect on the scope of our presentations.

We have welcomed new members this year and which bodes well for the Society in the coming years. So back to the last evening…

Iberian music

We were delighted welcome back Simon Coombs (pictured) who devoted his presentation around the Iberian peninsular with music from Spain and Portugal. Listeners to Classic FM will undoubtedly be aware of the Rodrigo’s Concerto Aranjuez which – if it were possible to wear out a CD – would be on its last legs by now, but other works by that composer seldom get a look in: a pity. We heard his Concerto Andaluz which is worth listening to.

Albeniz is another composer who gets occasional air time as of course does Manuel de Falla. But their ‘lesser’ or should we say less familiar works, often don’t get played. We have noted before that some composers have a handful of compositions which can drown out other pieces of their oeuvre.

Few, one suspects, have heard of Braga Santos and the extract from his 4th Symphony was a revelation. The full play list is attached.

As ever, Simon has used his deep knowledge of music to explore the by-ways and bring to life and to our attention work which is frequently overlooked. We were delighted with his presentation and a worthy coda to the season. The full playlist is below.

Next season

We are well advanced with the new season which starts at the end of September. It us a full programme with a number of special evenings. We will be producing the printed programme in July or perhaps August and will be available here and printed copies in the Tourism office and Salisbury Library.

Like all clubs and societies, we depend on volunteers to help run things so if you do have some time to come on to our committee, we would be pleased to see you. We have divided up the various functions so individual tasks do not take up much time.

Spanish playlist_0001Download

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Final meeting

Final meeting of the season tomorrow, 11th

Well, another season comes to an end and we are delighted to welcome back Simon Coombs who will entertain us with the music of the Iberian peninsular.

It has been an excellent year with a wide range of topics (see previous posts) and although we call ourselves the ‘recorded’ music society, we have had a live performance this year and much greater use of the big screen now available in the Guides’ Centre. This has enabled us to explore some historic performances captured on film and broaden our experience of the music. We have been pleased to welcome several new members this year.

The programme is all but finalised for 2026/27 and will be published sometime in the summer – August probably. On we go …

PC

Fascinating presentation on Black musicians

Dual presentation explores the historical role of Black musicians and breaks new ground

April 2026

The title of the presentation was Black musicians in England 1500 – 1800 which might have led you to believe a presentation tending towards the esoteric. Well, not a bit of it and Society members Rosemary Pemberton and Jeremy Barlow broke new ground with a truly interesting presentation on this topic.

What was noteworthy as the evening wore on was the degree of scholarship and research which had gone into it. After all, the subject is a little off the beaten track and the treatment of Black people during the period in question does not show Britain in a favourable light. Black people were considered a lower form of life and the slave trade was at its height by the end of the chosen period.

Rosemary got the idea she said by noticing a piece of Chelsea pottery of a Black musician probably playing an early trombone. Other pictures from that era revealed black musicians often somewhat tucked away. One well known individual was John Blanke (variously spelled) who was a trumpeter in Tudor courts including that of Henry VIII. He was thought to be the first Black musician in Britain.

A Hogarth print showing a Black trumpeter was another example. Another character was Billy Walters who busked outside the Adelphi theatre for many years with a wooden leg. His real leg was strapped up behind we were told.

An interesting fact was the role these musicians played in the army where they were used for signalling. Different melodies or riffs were played to send an order or message. One musician was attached to each squadron. Evidently, they were dressed in ‘reverse’ colours to the rest of the soldiers which did rather mark them out for enemy fire.

The arrival of more Black people in 16th Century was resented then much as some are now, the increasing numbers arriving from captured Spanish galleons.

And not forgetting the music. There were 16 pieces played during the course of the evening. Many were to illustrate particular instruments current during the period including for example the cornu, a huge curved horn.

Jeremy had brought along an unusual instrument native to Spain called the flabiol and there was video of someone playing it. A lot of wind instruments have a hole underneath to allow a change of register. This has two with one open or closed with the little finger which makes it something of a rarity and difficult to play.

There were illustrations of Turkish influence which had a big effect on western music. The recognisable beat appears in the overture to the Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart to illustrate the influence.

An extraordinary character was George Bridgetower a violinist (1791?-1860). The son of an Afro-Caribbean servant and a Polish mother at the Esterhazy palace, he was a student of composer Joseph Haydn and a friend of Beethoven. Beethoven dedicated a violin sonata to him, which was so hard to play many gave up. There was a falling out with Beethoven and the sonata became known as the Kreutzer Sonata. However, he never played it and there are moves to getting it renamed as it was originally.

It was something of a revelation that so many Black musicians were around during this period. It does not counter the appalling treatment that Africans experienced during the two centuries of the triangular trade and their fearful exploitation. But it does show that now and again, talented Black people were accepted into British society.

I cannot fail to mention that one of the pieces – La Volta by Byrd – was played by the Broadside Band, the creation of non other than one of the presenters, Jeremy Barlow, described as a ‘formidable presence’ by the Folk Music Journal.

This was an exceptional evening which illuminated and brought into the light the role played, sometimes in the shadows, by Black musicians in England at that time. The evening also illustrated that learning about the history and background of music and musicians is something the Society can do which is unique locally. The presenters made great use of prints and paintings from the time to illustrate their points.

The chair of the Society, Peter Horwood, in thanking both Rosemary and Jeremy for their work and research in their presentation, noted that Black people have a prominent roles in Jazz and popular music but were less evident in the classical world. Clearly there is work still to be done. He also thanked Robin for juggling discs, YouTube clips and PowerPoint to enable the evening to go smoothly.

Peter Curbishley

The presenters Rosemary and Jeremy. Jeremy is holding the flabiol in his left hand. Picture: Salisbury RMS

Next meeting

Our next meeting will tomorrow Monday 13th April when Rosemary Pemberton will present, with slides, a talk entitled ‘Black Musicians in Scenes of English Life, 1500-1850’.  Jeremy Barlow will provide the music, with commentary.

Unfortunately our next scheduled speaker is unwell, so we will be amending the rest of this season’s programme as follows: 

On Monday 27th April, we will now have, postponed from February, Tim Rowe and Alan Doel will present:  “Eric Satie: Gymnopediste!” 

Then our final session this season, on  11th May, we will welcome  Simon Coombs who will present: “Music from the Iberian Peninsula” 

We hope you had a good Easter break and that we shall see you at one or preferably more, of these evenings. 

Next meeting

An evening focusing on women composers

March 2026

We are delighted to welcome the ‘cellist Catherine Wilmers to the next meeting on Monday 23 March starting at 7:30 as usual. Catherine is a professional musician and played for many years with the LPO. You can read about her on her extensive website which will also give you a flavour of the evening’s presentation.

She will focus on female composers who all too rarely appear on programmes

and in performances. It seems that Dr Johnson’s disparaging comment is still true when told about a woman preaching at a Quaker event: ‘Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog walking in his hind legs. It is not done well but one is surprised to see it done at all’ (Boswell).

She will focus on works for the ‘cello and piano by women composers. No doubt she will show it can be done well.

Free if it is your first visit then £5 if you come again. The next meeting is on 13 April. We are at the rear of St Ann St in the Guides Centre with free parking. Access from Carmalite Way. We finish at 9:30.

PC

Photograph from her website.