ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - Garden Route concert lovers will surely be delighted with the news that the Carpe Musicam! Orchestra & Choir will be back towards the end of March with a show fit for royalty and ordinary folk alike, as they bring Proms 2020 to our shores.
The Proms… Catchy title, indeed. But, what or who is a prom (if such a thing or person comes in the singular)? Let's wander off into the wonderful world of the Wiki for more information:
The Proms are concerts that are part of a big music festival. “Proms” is short for “Promenade Concerts”.
The Proms as organised by the BBC, are called the BBC Proms and take place in the Royal Albert Hall in London from mid-July to mid-September every year.
The Proms as we know them started more than 100 years ago, in 1895. Concerts were expensive in those days, and not many people had enough money to go and hear good music. So most people were only able to hear good music when they went for walks in the London parks where there were promenade concerts played by promenade orchestras.
Easy listening
Most of the music was popular and easy to listen to. People could enjoy the music while they walked about. Sometimes these orchestras played in bandstands, sometimes in proper buildings.
Vauxhall Gardens and Ranelagh Gardens were the most famous of the gardens and were very fashionable until the 19th century. Aristocratic people, royalty and ordinary people all mixed there.
Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks was performed in Vauxhall Gardens to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The composer Dr Thomas Arne was appointed composer of Vauxhall Gardens in 1745. It was here that many of his songs became popular, including Rule Britannia.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn performed in Ranelagh Gardens on their visits to London.
In the 19th century concerts of classical music became very popular. The conductor Louis Antoine Jullien conducted many concerts. His orchestra was even joined by the bands of the Royal Artillery or drummers from the French National Guard.
Concerts were also given in Crystal Palace, the huge glass building which was built for the Great Exhibition in 1851.
Famous composers
The music was often long songs (ballads), or drinking songs. Sometimes choirs sang choruses from oratorios by Handel. Later in the 19th century the programmes included more music by famous composers such as Brahms, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Smetana and Wagner.
In the centre of London there was a building called the Queen's Hall where Handel had his music played in the 18th century. A man called Robert Newman who organised concerts there had an idea: he wanted to start a series of concerts which ordinary people (people who were not rich) could afford to go to. The idea was that people could have standing places which would not cost much money. There would also be seats for people who could afford to pay more.
Newman knew a very good young conductor, Henry Wood, and asked him to be the conductor of The Proms.
On 10 August 1895 the first Promenade Concert took place in the Queen’s Hall.
The price of a promenade ticket (a ticket for a standing place) was one shilling at the time.
The Promenade Concerts were a big success, and soon became known as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts". Wood conducted both popular music and the classical works of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Wagner, as well as that of some English composers.
Elgar and Delius's music have mainly survived due to Wood's Proms.
Wood conducted almost all of the Proms for 50 years, until just before his death in 1944.
First to appoint women
In 1913, Wood was the first English conductor to appoint women to play in his orchestra.
There is a Proms every night (i.e. every evening) for two months during the summer and the last of this festival of concerts is called the Last Night of the Proms.
Over the years some rather singular traditions have developed and it is almost obligatory to perform certain pieces of music including, Woods' Fantasia on British Sea Songs, Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory", Arne's Rule Britannia and Parry's Jerusalem.
The audience is encouraged to sing along with these items, and to indulge in activities that are only considered acceptable concert behaviour at the Last Night of the Proms.
The downside of this whole operation is that the first two hours of it are filled with rather serious music, and one only gets to let one's hair down for the last 40 minutes or so.
A previous Carpe Musicam! Last Night of the Proms concert was praised by a three-time London Last Night Proms-goer as the most fun he has ever had at a Last Night concert.
We keep all the good bits, and where the serious music would normally have been, we have fun too.
Concert dates:
- Friday 20 March, 19:00: Garden Route Botanical Garden in George
- Saturday 21 March, 18:30: Red Roof Scarab Village in Sedgefield
- Saturday 28 March, 19:00: Dias Museum in Mossel Bay
Mari Robertson, Carpe Musicam! Orchestra & Choir's youngest choir member, poses with the orchestra's mascot Sir Henry. His waistcoat was personally tailored for him by cellist Rona Swanepoel.
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