Music

All my troubles seem so far away- “The Sixties” - an exploration of events and music.Five lectures with Steve Millward and Frank Vigon There are sometimes in history when Society  makes not an evolutionary change, but a seismic shift. The 60s is a journey back to a decade that changed Society, Politics and Culture irrevocably.Using a range of multimedia we...

The tumultuous changes in English society during this period were naturally reflected in both art and music. But common threads ran right through. Symbols, signs and motifs spoke, for example, of a rich and distinctive culture and the widespread use of allegory to comment on current events was there from the beginning.  Above all, and despite (or possibly because of)...

We will listen to the first and last compositions of a variety of composers from the last four hundred years, with one composer considered each week.   Some composers appear to have found a characteristic style early on and retain this through their lives.  Others took a long time to find their voice and it is hard to recognize their early...

Most well-known composers are men.  However, much wonderful music has  been written (and is being written) by women composers and we will explore some of this music.This course was first given in 2021 and it became clear in preparing it what a wealth of wonderful music is more or less unknown.  The best known women composers are probably HIldegard of...

The symphony evolved out of orchestral introductions or interludes in vocal works in the seventeenth century through suites of dance music.  Joseph Haydn is to composer usually credited with establishing the form of the classical symphony in the second half of the eighteenth century but this grew out of the work of several other composers in the earlier years of the century.  The beginning...

The Singing for Fun choirs at the Wilmslow Guild are for anyone who wants to sing for fun. Some of our singers are very knowledgeable about music and have a great deal of experience, and some of our singers have never been in a choir before joining us – and most singers are somewhere in-between. There is no audition required,...

The Singing for Fun choirs at the Wilmslow Guild are for anyone who wants to sing for fun. Some of our singers are very knowledgeable about music and have a great deal of experience, and some of our singers have never been in a choir before joining us – and most singers are somewhere in-between. There is no audition required,...

The Singing for Fun choirs at the Wilmslow Guild are for anyone who wants to sing for fun. Some of our singers are very knowledgeable about music and have a great deal of experience, and some of our singers have never been in a choir before joining us – and most singers are somewhere in-between. There is no audition required,...

Join us for a musical whistle stop tour of many places, some geographical but some,  locations of the imagination and the heart. What drives the British sense of cosy domesticity embodied in Mersey ferries and Waterloo Sunsets or the American urge to find meaning in travel itself?  The glamour of Flying Down to Rio or April in Paris may...