Gerald Moore: Life, Work and Others

After months of building work and years of planning, the Gerald Moore Gallery is finally a reality. I, as a student, have seen much change in my time: the new Junior School, the Music School, the Triangle, the extension to King George’s Hall and the removal of the Tuck Shop. All of which have had, to some degree, an effect on my life at Eltham College. Will the Gerald Moore Gallery be the same? Well, sadly not. Having only roughly three weeks left of my Eltham College career, this addition will not change things for me greatly, however, if utilised to its full potential, it could have an impact as large as the Eric Liddell Sports Centre.

The opening itself was a rather subdued affair, all things considered. Crowded into the ground floor gallery with its fantastic air conditioning system, we listened to Mr Henderson’s insightful speech on the life and works of a man who appears to be a bit of a maverick, and a short but humorous tribute from the sculptor Michael Sandle. From then on, those in attendance were given the freedom to explore the gallery and admire the artwork on show. With such a wide variety of styles on show, I found it difficult to maintain my train of thought on the separate pieces, constantly being drawn away by the others exhibited. In Mr Moore’s authoritative work I could see echoes of Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and the dreamlike quality of Salvador Dali’s work. However, it would take someone with the descriptive powers of Waldemar Januszczak to do justice to this eclectic body of work which is presently gracing the walls of the Gerald Moore Gallery.

The two galleries offer entirely different spaces for the art to be viewed, with the dark, almost cramped ground floor gallery and the spacious, very bright first floor gallery. The exhibition accompanied by an audio-guide which provides disarmingly innocent descriptions of these pieces of art by children from the Junior School, a far cry from the analysis offered by Mr Sandle. One Year 3 child had clearly felt the art was secondary to his description, as he amusingly suggested that “you enjoyed his beautiful voice”. Much credit must be given to Ms Goodeve, who has clearly worked extremely hard in creating these audio-guides, to ensure that the opening days of the Gerald Moore Gallery are as memorable as possible.

As a student who won’t be able to truly experience what effect the new gallery will have on the school, I would appeal to all students to explore the new possibilities which both spaces offer. If anything, I imagine this will make the prospect of doing art to GCSE and higher an even more attractive prospect due to the fact that their creations can now be shown in a ‘professional’ environment.

Tom Edwards

What a week that was to start the summer term!

We began with the unveiling of the Junior School Mosaic in the Tuesday afternoon before going to the Centenary Concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank; and we finished with the OE Girls’ Dinner, celebrating 30 years of girls being in the Sixth Form. Certainly it was a week to remember.

The Mosaic in the Junior School was designed in Workshops for the boys, around the ideas of what has happened over the past 100 years both at school and in British history; using the River Thames as the central focus on which to hang other images of the famous sites of London completed the overall collage. Under the direction of local designer Tamara Froud and Mrs Wrafter, the boys were then instructed in how to attach the tesserae onto a gauze for attaching to the terracotta wall leading down the staircase inside the school into the playground. The overall effect is absolutely stunning, with images of W G Grace, Eric Liddell, George Band and Mervyn Peake clearly recognisable on the inside section; as you move outside the building into the playground, the school’s Plane Tree is accompanied by the symbols of an Eltham Junior School education, with sports, music, chess and fencing all being singled out. It is a most worthy celebration of the last 100 years and one of which the boys should be proud. Let’s hope it stays in place for the next 100!

I shall run out of superlatives remembering the Centenary Concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall! It truly was great celebration of the music-making at the school: with over 120 pupils taking part in Ensembles as varied as the Consort Choir and The Jazz Orchestra. Everyone was at their best, and I was delighted for Mr Alastair Tighe, our Director of Music, and his other staff (especially Mrs Laura Oldfield and Mr Norman Levy) that everything went so well. From the first drum beats of Ives’ Fanfare for the Common Man, through to the last chord of Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens, there was a genuine feeling of joy at the quality of music being performed. And what an audience! – over 700 seats occupied by parents, friends, grandparents, OEs and their parents – full of admiration for the orchestras and choirs, and clearly enjoying the evening’s entertainment. It was great to see so many old friends, including Tim Johnson, who had been Director of Music for over eight years, all of whom had come back especially  for this evening.

Finally, the week concluded with a gathering over thirty OE Girls with about ten staff to recall the years of co-educational Sixth Form at Eltham College. Perhaps there was a certain irony that it was a girls-only event – since we should be stressing the importance of co-education, but I think that all present had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. It was also difficult to identify correctly why what we were celebrating since the first girl to attend the school (Anne Edwards, then Ricketts) left in 1975 – but she only studied one A level at Eltham while still  at Farrington’s for her other A levels. But who’s counting? I really enjoyed catching up with those OEs who had arrived in my early years, but I sensed that the older former students enjoyed going down memory lane just as much. They even enjoyed trying to find themselves and their friends on the whole school photographs!

P J Henderson

What a great Evening of Jazz we had on Thursday 29^th March.  It was a fitting evening to record as a memory of the high standard of jazz being played by the pupils in 2012.  The original idea to make a recording this year came from the fact that the majority of Hot Jazz had reached their final year – they had first been put together in the Junior School by Mr Steve Thompson, and arrived in the Senior School in 2005 as Hot Seven.  But in the end the audience all agreed that the overall quality of music being made by the boys and girls in all the different groups was excellent.

The evening was begun and finished by the Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Mr Norman Levy. Their Big Band sound was full of energy and power, and for the first time that I can remember the Orchestra was full of current pupils, with no OEs and only two adults, Messrs Thompson and Coates.

The great thing about the evening was that we were given the full range of Jazz styles with the Dixieland, the R ‘n’ B, the Sax Quartet,  the Django Jazz Guitar Group (a first outing!), as well as Hot Jazz themselves and their heirs, Cool Jazz, the youngsters following in the seniors’ footsteps!  In the spirit of a true Jazz Evening soloists were invited to improvise throughout.  I really enjoyed Eleanor Barton’s work on the Saxophone, Jack Worlidge on the trombone and Louis Barclay on the trumpet. Tom Wilson improvised in a different way when he lost one of his drumsticks in Tequila, showing considerable presence of mind to keep the piece moving.  It was a delightful surprise to have Amy Cleary’s dulcet tones in front of the Jazz Orchestra, and Patrick Pamment coming off keyboards to sing with Hot Jazz.  Perhaps there were a few too many improvisations? - it is always a difficult line to tread between being self-indulgent to the leavers and giving a chance to learn the skill to the young ones.

Steve Thompson and Michael Coates provided wit and humour, as they introduced their ensembles, while Norman Levy (right) gave us the stories behind the songs and their composers; he can be really proud of his achievements – the only thing missing of this night was his traditional and repeated appeal to the audience to give the “Jazz Orchestra” their appropriate praise at the end of the evening.  We didn’t mind – we were happy to cheer the “Jazz Orchestra” anyway!