Classical Music Appreciation
About the adviser
I am originally from Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands but influenced by my father’s career my family moved around the West Midlands when I was a child, before settling down for me to spend my formative teenage years in Stoke on Trent. My own career in Hotel Management took me to Yorkshire, Shropshire, West London and Somerset. In 1981 a career change to higher education as a Lecturer in Hospitality Management and later as Dean of School and then Deputy Dean of Faculty took me back to West London for the next 30 years before finally taking early retirement when I settled in Burnham on Sea.
My interest in music was formed at an early age from the radio, and my parents record collection, but for much of my early life was slanted on popular music although classical always formed a part of it. Becoming a teenager in the early sixties really meant that I was a fully signed up member of the beat generation and my musical interests and record collection were firmly focussed on chart 45rpm singles. It was only in the early seventies that in search of something more fulfilling than a 3-minute single and restricted radio playlists I seriously turned more towards classical music, building knowledge and appreciation. My collection of the more popular classics rapidly grew, and my knowledge was enhanced through the record library offered through my local public libraries.
Like so many people I joined the u3a as a way of expanding my horizons and meeting new, like minded, people. I have been a member of our Classical Music Appreciation Group 1 from its inception in 2014 and took over as the Group Leader earlier this year. 1n 2024 I formed an additional Music Appreciation Group which has a focus on Opera, Operetta and Gilbert & Sulivan.
Guidelines for setting up and running a classical music group
First of all, I will provide some guidelines for setting up and running a classical music group.
In Burnham u3a we have three Classical Music Groups of which I am the Group Leader for two. All three Groups basically follow the same structure which we have found to work well for us and currently all Groups are full, and we have a waiting list.
I will give some details of how we run our Groups in the hope that this will be helpful but prefix them with the warning that there are many different approaches and one size will not fit all.
Right from the start we took a decision that all members of the group would contribute to the music to which we listen, and this has worked very well. In our case each group member takes it in turn to produce a programme of music of their choice to play to the assembled group. This way, we have found that we are able to hear a wide variety of music. A programme of music and accompanying notes is prepared by each presenter. The notes are emailed to the members prior to the meeting so that they know in advance what music they are going to hear and if they wish they can carry out further research on the programme. Early in our formation we collectively decided that we would present complete works rather than a pot puree of sections or movements from works, In the case of the Opera and Operetta Group we have expanded this to feature a complete piece.
This is obviously down to the individual group as to the frequency of meetings required and how long each session should last.
Each of our groups meets for a two-hour session twice a month, this allows for around 90 minutes of music with time for a refreshment break, and for the most part our meeting are held in a private home, usually but not always, that of the Group Leader. There is no doubt that a comfortable listening environment and decent quality playback equipment makes a tremendous contribution to the success of the meetings. It does have the drawback that it restricts the number of members to that which can be comfortable accommodated in a domestic environment, in our case we find that around eight is comfortable number.
We are fortunate that in Burnham the u3a and our local multiroomed Community Centre have a very close relationship. Nevertheless, playing music at realistic levels whilst other group activities are in progress elsewhere in the building would likely be disruptive to others, so we have avoided the alternative option of basing ourselves in a community building. In recent months though the Community Centre has installed several large TV screens and they do lend themselves very well to showing Opera and Operetta from DVD, so that our specialist Opera & Operetta Group has moved some of it’s meeting to the Community Centre to take advantage of this facility. This is early days, but so far this seems to be working well.
Currently the member who is presenting will bring recordings on CD from their own collection. The rise of affordable high quality music streaming services and fast broadband connections is likely to change this in the future, but that then puts the onus on the meeting host to make available the technical services necessary. Groups will need to discuss with their local u3a the situation regarding the copyright legislation.
We have found that occasionally new members want to attend and just listen and not present and we are happy to go along with this request. Experience has shown us that as they gain confidence, and with support, they find that they also want to join the presentation roster.
The term “classical music” has a wide connotation these days, so it is down to each individual group to set parameters of the music they want to hear. The Burnham groups have set a wide variety of music ranging from early church music virtually up to the present day and for the general groups it does include operatic arias but not complete operas. As stated earlier we set up a separate group for opera & operetta. We feel however, it should be down to each individual group to decide what music they want to hear or are willing to try.
I do hope that our experiences encourage others to start Classical Music Groups in their local u3a. It has proved a positive and rewarding experience. I am very happy to field questions or provide more detailed advice around what has worked for us. Again, I emphasise that there is no right or wrong way forward, it’s what works for your group that is important.