Blog
Check back here regularly to find out what's going on at Andrew Jackman:70.
Please note my new email address dianejackman2017@gmail.com
I apologise if you have emailed me and heard nothing. Please try again. Owing to problems with my tiscali account, emails sent between February and mid-March may not have arrived and would not have received a mail undeliverable message either.
Rounding up what has happened this year I am happy to report that of the 90 works in the booklet and some that have surfaced since, 30 were performed, many of them, like the organ music, with multiple performances.
Publication of Stone Legends is under way and there are performances of Norfolk Kaleidoscope and A Comedy of Ghosts to come. We are still hoping that the music-making day at Gissing can be re-arranged. It would be good if it could happen before July 13th, when Andrew would have turned 71. The massive task of digitising the music has been undertaken by Dr. Nicholas Groves, my Anglo-Saxon tutor, who is also a fine musician and organist, church historian, Welsh speaker, general Renaissance man. We cannot thank him enough for his patience and accuracy in the Herculean task. Samples of all the digitised work are now on the website.
So it's back to normal life after a lot of hard work, but also renewing of contacts with old friends and acquaintances, and gratitude that with the suppport of so many people it has been possible to realise the improbable dream I had in the middle of 2015.
January 1st 2017
A new year, a broken wrist and almost the end of the celebration of Andrew’s 70th birthday year. There are still some performances to come: the postponement of the Gissing Music Day, more from Cawston Band and the South Norfolk Youth Symphonic Band and “A Comedy of Ghosts” in October. Individual players are still asking for music. I’ve just printed all the organ music for the latest request, and amazingly Ralph has turned up the missing page of “Intro and Outro” in the piano stool at Tivetshall. The Steinway has been out of commission all year, having the action restored. Thirty years of hard playing had created several problems, as Andrew had never had a break long enough to have remedial works done.
I had a Christmas card from previous neighbours who moved to Yorkshire, reminding me that Andrew had written a piece of organ music for their daughter’s wedding. This was an amazing occasion as everyone was in English Civil War dress, the flowers in church were 17th century, and I wonder if the piece Andrew wrote for the little organ at Tivetshall was Consort. Further enquiries needed.
More samples will go up on The Works page shortly.
But to back up a bit.
24th November
I received a recording of Forestdene complete with a video of photographs of “Forestdene” itself, Jeff Jarratt’s beautiful house and garden in Hertfordshire. Forestdene was written for Jeff’s 50th birthday.
Jeff was one of the first record producers involved with Andrew at the start of his career, and the connection continued until Andrew’s death through Classic Rock and other symphonic albums. Andrew was working on a symphonic arrangements of Robbie Williams’ Angels for Jeff at the time of his death. .
It was a real thrill to hear Elwin Hendrijanto’s eloquent and moving performance, which you can hear on the audio clips page, and the photographs complement the music perfectly. Elwin is one half of the exciting and creative Piano Brothers with Dominic Ferris, the son of Roger Ferris – another record producer who worked with Andrew. Check out their website.
13th December
Email from Kathy Jackman, tenor horn player with the Amersham Band
Success! Last night - our last band practice of the year - I took Toby along armed with 2 ipads plus a couple of phones and he recorded the band running through the 1st movement of New Buckenham Suite then performing it. It went really well despite a depleted band - no flugel or bass trombone and only 1 bass but sounded good, we enjoyed playing it. Toby will edit bits then post it on YouTube with the logo...by the end of the year!
And as promised the link to Youtube arrived on New Year’s Eve!
Many thanks to the band for taking part in the project and for their enthusiastic performance on one evening’s practice.
December 17th
The Warblers performed The Tivetshall Carol at St Helen’s Church, Costessey as part of the annual Christmas Concert. Unfortunately December 17th was the day I tripped and broke my wrist, so instead of being in the audience at St. Helens’ I was sitting in A&E waiting to be plastered. Luckily Andrew’s cousin Libby was at the concert, so we were represented.
December18th
On the following evening, the South Norfolk Symphonic Band were playing a Christmas concert at the united Reformed Church in Diss – a venue I could walk to. Their conductor, Mike Booty, was not sure whether they would play The Transformation of Scrooge. Christmas is always difficult as the young players have many other musical commitments at that time and rehearsals can be patchy. Anyway they took up the challenge, some of the principals sight-reading, and showed great talent and their usual enthusiasm to produce a very creditable performance, which the audience enjoyed. But the highlight of the evening had to be the snow. The band sections were standing up and down, Glenn Miller-style when suddenly it began to snow. Great stuff!
November 24th
What a long time since the last blog entry. There have been two concerts and a celebration communion service, an emergency hospital admission and a seventieth birthday weekend since then. I have now surfaced and can catch up on what has been happening. In reverse order:
19th November
The English Baroque Choir’s winter concert at St. Sepulchre’s Church (the Musicians’ Chapel in London where Andrew’s name is inscribed on page 208 of the Book of Remembrance) took as its theme Light in the Darkness. The choir sang beautifully and their performance of music from such diverse composers as Tallis, Elgar and Whitacre was extremely well-received. As an encore they sang Choral Fanfare, the version without words which Andrew originally wrote for the Royal Choral Society. There is a link to the video clip on the Audio Clips tab.
12th November
A Remembrance Concert at Burston church in Norfolk was given by the Cawston Band, who were on the top of their form. The programme ranged from John Williams’ Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan to a sing-along of Second World War Songs. Words were provided so the audience had no excuse, and the singing was spirited. In the first half the Band played three movements of New Buckenham Suite, changing the order so it finished with the hustle-bustle and humour of Market Day. The band enjoyed making the animal noises as much as the audience enjoyed hearing them. In the second half the Band premiered Poppyfields: A Letter Home composed by their percussionist Kevin Bell. This was a moving reflection on the battles of the Great War with the letter home narrated by Kevin’s son James A poignant reminder of the youth of so many who were killed.
For their encore the Band played You’re a Lady, which was Andrew’s first venture into brass band music, when he wrote the arrangement for Peter Skellern’s hit. This was a complete surprise for me, and very moving.
30th October
A choir of 18 came together in Tivetshall Church for the quarterly Five-Parish Communion service. Frank Paice came back to the wilds from Norwich to rehearse the singers, play the organ, lead the basses and encourage the baritones to have a go at the tenor line. The church was full. Frank played the three organ pieces, Consort, The Bread and Wine and Amazing Grace before during and after the service. The choir sang Andrew’s setting of Morning has Broken (challenging on one rehearsal) and the Communion setting. The Rector recalled in his sermon the day he drove five hours to Catterick as chaplain to the annual ATC camp, only to be greeted on arrival with the news of Andrew’s death and could he return home. He went on to relate an occasion when Andrew had been abroad to receive an award (possibly to do with Classic Rock) and after the prestigious occasion, while his companions were off to sample the nightlife, he got on a plane to get back to Winfarthing because he had promised to play the guitar for 6 Wasps (Sunday school group) next morning. A gig is a gig.
After the service there were plenty of reminiscences from choir and congregation, accompanied by cake and coffee.
15th October
Concert at Diss Church.
This was an evening dedicated to Andrew’s music. The concert opened with The Bread and the Wine and Forestdene played by Adrian Kitchen, a local music teacher and organist, followed by French Suite performed with skill and gusto by Qingfeng Qian, one of Adrian’s pupils. Qingfeng started piano lessons at the age of 5 in 2010 and is now preparing for Grade 8. He is obviously a young pianist to look out for in the future. Nicholas Groves stepped up to the organ bench at the last moment to play Consort, originally written for the 2’ flute stop, but given a bit more oomph on the Diss organ and in the wonderful acoustic of St. Mary’s; then Andrew’s at times terrifying harmonization of Amazing Grace was performed with great éclat by Dr. Groves. Rat Pieces followed. Naomi Okuda is an internationally renowned recorder player who performs and teaches here in England and in Japan. Carole Lovett, actor and director, spoke a short poem “An Ancients Rat’s Curse” written by Andrew to accompany the work, which imagines the music the Pied Piper of Hamelin might have played as he enchanted first the rats and then the children in Browning’s poem. Certainly Naomi enchanted her audience. Naomi was then joined by Howard Beach. Howard was harpsichordist for many years with Red Priest, and accompanist at the International Dartington Summer School. They performed Dicta Florum, - The Language of Flowers. Taking the Victorian conceit of conveying messages by the meaning of flowers, a love story unfolds in each short piece of music. The rapport between recorder player, harpsichordist and narrator made this a a virtuosic performance, full of colour, variety and sensitivity.
After the interval, Esther Skipp played Vodka in the Snow, accompanied by her father, Ian on piano, and then the solo ‘cello work Chanson. Esther’s beautiful playing captivated the audience. Esther is another young performer with a bright future, who has played with the Britten Sinfonia Academy and may go to Chetham’s for her A Levels.
Finally, The Marian Consort whose international credits and recordings are legion sang a short anthem, the Christmas carol A little childe there is i-bore and the climax of the evening Sea Dances. Their interpretation of the songs was so expressive, and the brilliance of the different sound worlds conjured up in Sea Dances was sheer delight. So many of the audience – musicians and non-musicians alike, said they had never heard such amazing singing. The Consort are Charlotte Ashley and Rachel Ambrose-Evans (sopranos), Rory McLeery (counter-tenor and director), Matthew Howard (tenor) and Rupert Reid and Christopher Borrett (basses)
I am so grateful to all the musicians who took part and to the large audience who came to hear Andrew’s music.
October 4th
The Music of Andrew Jackman
St. Mary's Church Diss: Saturday October 15th at 7.30
Free Admission
Retiring Collection for Help Musicians UK and Tivetshall St Margaret Church
Light Refreshments including a glass of wine/juice
The hectic planning is nearly complete. 700 flyers and posters distributed throughout the countryside, the banner up outside the church, press releases sent out. Everything coming together for the concert on Saturday October 15th at 7.30.
We have been extremely fortunate in the wonderful line-up of artists who will be performing Andrew’s music in St. Mary’s Church Diss.
The Marian Consort is a young, dynamic and internationally-renowned vocal ensemble, recognised for its freshness of approach and innovative presentation of a broad range of repertoire. Under its founder and director Rory McCleery, the ensemble has given concerts throughout the UK and Europe and features regularly on BBC Radio 3. They have released 7 CDs, all of which have been met with critical acclaim in the broadsheets and specialist press. “Performances that glow with golden purity and soul” The Scotsman.
Named as a “Young Artist” at the Brighton Early Music Festival, they are also proud exponents of contemporary music, They will be singing the short anthem Harvest Home and a Christmas carol A little childe there is i-bore, Andrew’s setting of medieval words, before the more extended suite of songs Sea Dances.
Naomi Okuda studied recorder at the Osaka School of Music and later at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduating she returned to Japan, giving recitals and making recordings until returning to the UK permanently in 2010, where she continues to develop her performing career and teaches both at Wellington College and privately. She has made a number of recordings including her solo CD “Airs Anglois”, released to considerable critical acclaim in England and Japan. "...graceful and with exquisite sense.." Early music magazine Entree
Howard Beach studied piano and harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has had a wide-ranging career as an accompanist. He has was accompanist to the Dartington International Summer School between 1991 and 2004 For eleven years he was the harpsichordist for Red Priest, featured regularly on Radio 3 and Classic FM, and toured all over the world. This year he has worked with the BBC , Glyndebourne and has a new trio - harpsichord soprano and baroque violin.
Naomi will be playing Rat Pieces, three short works featuring the music the Pied Piper might well have played to entice the rats away from Hamelin according to Browning’s poem.
Then Naomi and Howard will perform Dicta Florum (the language of flowers), ten short movements for recorder and harpsichord, thumbnails of each flower and its meaning, which strung together tell a love story without a happy ending.
The remaining musicians are drawn from the very active musical life of Norfolk:
Esther Skipp is a young ‘cellist, who has played with the Britten Sinfonia Academy and is sectional leader of the County Youth Orchestra ‘cello section. After GCSEs in 2017, she is looking at going on to Chetham’s to study for her A-levels..
Qinfeng Qian arrived in the UK aged 5 in 2010 and a year later, he began piano lessons at with Adrian Kitchen. He has just started in his first year at Thetford Grammar School and is working towards his Grade 8 piano exam.
Adrian Kitchen has taught Qinfeng since he arrived in the Uk in 2010. Adrian hiself studied violin at the City of Leeds College of Music and has taught piano and violin for more than 30 years. He regularly plays the organ in a number of churches in Norfolk and Suffolk.
September 25th
So many people have approached me, saying they saw the feature in the Eastern Daily Press at the beginning of the month. Many had no idea of the scope of Andrew's musical career. Naturally I made sure I always had a flyer or a booklet in my bag to give to them.
September 9th CORRECTION to my blog for April 19th.
Concert Light and Darkness by the English Baroque Choir on November 19th at St. Sepulchre's in London
Admission is not free. I will post ticket prices when I have them.
September 7th
A wonderful feature on Andrew and his music in the Eastern Daily Press in Saturday's Weekend supplement. Notes on a Life Floral Dance to Streisand: the remarkable musical legacy of Andrew Jackman by Rowan Mantell with photographs of the family, the music and Tivetshall St Margaret church, the three foundations of his life. You can catch up with the article at www.edp24.co.uk/features/heritage
September 6th
THE MUSIC DAY AT GISSING CHURCH ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH IS POSTPONED,
owing to the sudden illness of a key participant and organiser, Daralyn. Very sadly it was impossible to cover all the piano music and accompaniment of soloists at short notice, especially as in the previous week, the other main keyboard player, Frank Paice had failed to shake off a lung infection, and had been ordered to stop eveything.
There is quite lot happening before Christmas, so it is hoped the event could be re-staged in some form in Spring. We had an excellent line-up of committed and enthusiastic musicians and singers - and handbell ringers
In the meantime, we send out very best wishes for a speedy recovery to Daralyn and Frank.
August 31st
Excitement today as the photographer from the Eatern Daily Press came to take photos of the family with some of Andrew's music and album covers for a featureby Rowan Mantell in the Weekend section about Andrew Jackman 70. Esme joined in and Sonia the patient photographer managed to persuade her to stop looking over her shoulder at Lion King long enough to take some good pictures.
August 28th
Saturday Night at the Movies
The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under their conductor, Steven Bell played a sellout concert in the beautiful grounds of Taverham Hall School on 27th August .
John Williams Soundtrack Spectacular was presented by the Outside Live team of Ollie George and John Carnall. After a week of blistering heat, the skies clouded over in the evening, although we were assured by the compere, Nick Conrad of Radio Norfolk , that the BBC weather had told him it would not rain. They were nearly right. It rained, not much, for about three minutes, and certainly not enough to dampen the rapturous reception given the orchestra by the audience as they played John Williams’ classics – from the exciting and stirring Jaws, Superman, Jurassic Park to the moving Theme from Schindlers List and Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan. The Harry Potter Medley was conducted vigorously throughout by 2 year old Esme. Obviously some musical genes have percolated down.
To the last moment we did not know whether Andrew’s piece for strings, “Slow Tears” would be included, until Steven Bell announced the piece and pointed out that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946, also celebrated its 70th birthday this year in October – a nice piece of synchronicity. I leave it to Ralph’s Facebook entry to express our feelings.
A night to say thank you. Thank you to Outside Live for allowing a complete unknown from
Norfolk have a dream come true. Thank you to Lisa Green and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra for helping with the persuasion. Thank you Henry for dropping everything to help convert the dusty
manuscript to professional parts in 48 hours! Thank you mum for checking them and dropping them off (logistics was never my strong point!) Thank you Conductor Steven Bell for finding the space... in
the programme and leading the awesome players. And thank you audience who had paid to listen to the music of the world's most Oscar nominated human being, John Williams, for receiving dad's "Slow
Tears" so well...proud proud PROUD! Dad's music played by musicians of that calibre in the beautiful grounds of my old school to a near sell out crowd of 4000 = perfection!
www.andrewjackman.co.uk - Andrew Jackman 70 - keep bringing it to life!
August 27th
Swing low, sweet chariot is proving very popular with singers, and I turned up this description from the programme of "Music for a Summer's Evening” given by the Bristol Bach Choir under their conductor Gavin Carr at St. Monica’s Westbury on Trym in 2011.
The writer of the beautifully detailed programme notes is not named, which is a pity, but may have been the conductor.
“This tune has of course been rather hijacked recently by England Rugby supporters. This arrangement freshens it up nicely, with cool minim chords on the piano in the first and last sections, and a middle section more inspired by Soul. At the end of the middle section listen for a very effective passage for choir alone which is marked hushed and ecstatic and which leads gently back to the opening cool chords.”
There has been a gap in the blog for most of August. For two weeks we went on a cruise to the Baltic capitals and St. Petersburg. The highlight for me was Tallinn, and its wonderfully preserved mediaeval Old Town. After a walking tour we went for coffee and cakes, and a display of folk dancing by Sõprus, the oldest dance group in Estonia. All was very civilised until the dancers decided that audience participation was desirable. I was whirled round by a thirty-something in traditional dress and a black hat, and put down in all the right places, I hope. My job was to stay on my feet. Great fun.
Afterwards our guide Margit took us to the Song Festival Grounds, presided over by the brooding statue of Gustav Ernesaks (1908 – 1993) an Estonian composer and choir leader who wrote himself into the history pages with his songs. Mu isamaa on minu arm (Land of my fathers, land that I love) became the unofficial national anthem during Soviet times. 23000 people fill the Grounds at the annual festival.
When the Berlin Wall fell Margit explained that people came to the Song Festival Grounds every night after work to sing the Estonian national songs which had been banned. They each held up a strip of blue, black or white cloth, the components of the Estonian flag. As no one carried a complete flag they could not be charged, Eventually the Soviet tanks withdrew. There was no bloodshed, and Margit’s phrase was unforgettable. “We sang ourselves free.” The power of music.
In Roskilde Cathedral, the burial place of many kings and queens of Denmark, including Harold Bluetooth,, we listened to a virtuoso organ recital and, afterwards I asked the minister if he would present Consort to the young recitalist. Unfortunately I was not able to get her name.
And somewhere on the high seas off Copenhagen, Lisa Harman played Forestdene. A singer and pianist of many styles from classical to jazz, and almost anything you could request in between, she played on the ship three times a day and her engaging personality and sheer talent brought her an enthusiastic audience. She has said she will be playing Forestdene again on her next tour of duty.
July 28th
Sunday Evensong in Wimborne Minster, Dorset included the anthem My Beloved Spake . This was the culmination of a week of singing cathedral-style Evensong around Dorset churches by participants in the Laudemus! choral course at Blandford Forum. As ever the singers. who come together for a week in the summer, produced a moving and impressive performance under their conductor, Jerey Jackman,
We've had a card from Rachel Hunt, house and collections manager at Cotehele, Cornwall (NT) to say thank you for sending more of Andrew's music, and that Simon Arnold who regularly plays on pianos and organs in several National Trust properties, has been enjoying playing the pieces, particularly his setting of Amazing Grace.
Cawston Band are giving a Remembrance concert on Saturday November 12th in St. Mary's church, Burston, which will feature some of Andrew's music. Their new conductor, Leigh Sharpe, formerly Musical Director of the Band of the Dragoon Guards, is currently looking at suitable music, while the Band practises for the National Championships in September, where they'll be playing Stephen Bulla's Images for Brass
The harp piece (see July 19th) is now printed and has a title Birds Fly Over The Hidden House.
July 19th
A new organ piece has surfaced from The Heap. Consort was written for the small ex-Georgian salon organ at Tivetshall St Margaret church. One of the five stops is a 2' flute, and Andrew was particularly fond of its sound. When there was talk of sacrificing that stop in order to make the organ louder, there was an organist's revolt, as only organists know how. Dr Nicholas Groves played the piece last week at a wedding in St. Nicholas, North Walsham. He said it was just the right length and nicely upbeat. I wonder if the bride and groom knew they were listening to a world premiere! Nick used 4' and 8' flute. The sample will be on the website on Thursday.
Harp Music
Love Songs for Soprano and Harp have now been printed and sample pages will be on the website on Thursday.
These were written after Andrew had been introduced by Fiona Hibbert to Carlos Salzedo's "Modern Study of the Harp".
– Leopold Stokowski, conductor
Another find from The Heap is an, as yet untitled, piece for solo harp. More on this later.
Publication!
I have been approached by a music publisher about the possible publication of Andrew's brass band works.
This co-incided with the completion of the printing of two works Stone Legends and Scenes from a Wild West Movie by Sam Garton of Hathern Band. so I was able to hand them a clear and accurate copy of both pieces. Very exciting news.
July 17th
It seems a long time since I posted on this blog. Life has been so busy with planning for future events, of which more later.
Gresham’s School Chapel service on June was a moving occasion. Lawrence Tao, the acting Director of Music took me on a whistle-stop tour of the school beforehand. It was a mixture of memories and changes, showing that things move on, which is good, but that the spirit of the school remains constant. There are mighty plans for a new music and music technology centre, and I was able to see the extent of the foundations. What a wonderful resource for future generations it will be. Ellie joined me for the service and the choir sang beautifully under the direction of Tom Appleton. I had not heard Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, apart from when it was being set on the piano, so it was a particularly special morning.
Sing Low. Sweet Chariot was also the choice of The Big Sing concert at Wymondham Music Festival on July 10th. This event was part of the Wymondham Music Festival which runs for a fortnight, and showcases every type of music. This year was the first time there had been a Big Sing, but its success surely means it will be a regular fixture. Around 20 singers who had not sung as a group before, turned up on Saturday and in the ensuing workshops on Saturday and Sunday morning, put together an eclectic concert, for us to enjoy on Sunday afternoon. Some of the singers had not sung in a choir before, but there were experienced singers there to support them, and the whole event was organised by the conductor and workshop leader Katie Vaughan whose talent and enthusiasm inspired the scratch choir to some beautiful ensemble singing.
The Music Day at Gissing planned by Daralyn Hammond for September 10th (10-4) is mushrooming into a day of such variety I don’t know where to start. So far we have singers – classical, folk, soloists and choir, even Doctor, Doctor, with a touch of am-dram for the role of Doctor, and audience participation for the school children; pianists, organists, flautists, handbell ringers, a cellist, guitarist, ukulele player, readings of poems about music etc etc With food and drink in the church, the Gissing Crown opposite and loos at the Bowls Club, we can carry on making music long after close. So come and listen or come and make some music of your own. There will be Open Mic spots for the impromptu. For more info call 01379 642372 or 01379 677633.
June 2nd
True to her word Daralyn Hammond has been playing Little Bit Rock ‘n’ Roll around National Trust houses in the South West. First stop in May was Arlington Court in Devon where she played the piece, but was unable to leave the music. The Chichester family (Sir Francis the yachtsman was related) who used to own Arlington Court had stipulated that the music in the piano stool must be only what the family had played.
At Trelissick in Cornwall there is a very fine Broadwood grand. Daralyn’s playing so impressed the Hana, the house steward, that had she been local she would have been signed up as a volunteer pianist, to join the team who regularly come in to entertain visitors to the house. Hana took the opportunity to video Daralyn’s playing, including Little Bit Rock ‘n’ Roll, so we hope to get the clip up on the website very soon.
On to Cotehele where there is a delightful and rare portable chamber organ – not suitable for rock and roll! Daralyn met Simon Arnold, a volunteer organist in his retirement. He had been a Lay Clerk at Ely Cathedral, and regularly plays at three or four National Trust properties in Devon. He asked for more of Andrew’s music including the organ pieces, which he will play on his rounds, including Killerton House and Castle Drogo.
Daralyn’s performance on the Bechstein at Killerton brought her a round of applause , and an encore, and at Knightshayes Court in Devon, a little girl started an impromptu dance to the music – she had just begun ballet. Finally to Claydon House in Buckinghamshire – I remember going to a concert there in the 1970s; the Allegri Quartet in a stunning performance of “Death and the Maiden.”
Wymondham Music Festival
This year it runs from 1st to 16th July in an exciting range of venues and musical activities – something for everyone: Jazz, Folk, Choral, Classical, Teddy Bear’s Picnic On Saturday 9th July and Sunday 10th July, Wymondham’s Big Sing brings together singers of all abilities to Wymondham High Academy, preparing for a concert at 4pm on Sunday afternoon. Andrew’s arrangement of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” published by OUP is one of the songs chosen by the music director Katie Vaughan. Tickets are available online. £8 for the Saturday workshop and £5 for the concert. More info at www.wymfest.org.uk
Dicta Florum - the Language of Flowers for recorders and harpsichord, and optional narrator is printed and now available. The art of sending messages by means of a bouquet of flowers was known to the ancients. The first English "vocabulary" appeared in 1847, Thomas Miller's "The Poetical Language of Flowers or The Pilgrimage of Love". Each of the ten movements is a thumbnail sketch of the meaning attached to the chosen flower. The music charts the course of a love affair between Chivalry, the hero (daffodil) and Elegance, the heroine (jasmine).
Three of the short movements can be viewed as samples on the website. The piece was performed by Andrew on recorders, Charlotte Brown on harpsichord and Kay Price, actor at the National Theatre and chorister's mother, at a concert in St. Mary's Church Primrose Hill in aid of the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir School Foundation.
May 7th
A Little Bit Rock ‘n’ Roll round the piano stools of the National Trust.
The Trust has a policy of allowing visitors who are competent pianists to play on the pianos in some of their houses. You don’t have to book. Just speak to one of the stewards. There is usually a variety of music waiting in the piano stool.
Last year Daralyn Hammond played at Dunster Castle in Somerset. Another visitor told her how he’d enjoyed her impromptu performance, even though it wasn’t his usual kind of music. Had she got anything more rock ‘n’ roll with her? Bearing this in mind Daralyn has taken several copies of Andrew’s piece A Little Bit Rock ‘n’ Roll to play in any National Trust house she may visit this year. And she’ll leave the music behind in the piano stool for anyone else to play. Who knows where it might turn up?
Come and Join in a day of music-making on Saturday September 10th at St. Mary’s church, Gissing. From 10am to 4pm, there will be invited musicians and singers, and plenty of gaps for anyone to come along and play, sing or read poetry about music. The day will be dedicated to Andrew and to two musicians from the benefice who have died in the last year: Joyce Yates was a flautist and former music teacher at Royal Hospital School in Holbrook, Suffolk. She gave unstintingly of her musicianship to various choirs and groups in the area since moving to Norfolk . Florrie Sell, who died at the age of 95 in March 2015 was the organist at Gissing for many years, and had played the organ since the age of 14.
The Cawston Band, fresh from their triumph at the London and Southern Counties Regionals in March, and their subsequent promotion back to the First Section, have played Broadland Day and New Buckenham Suite at band practice in April.
April 19th
The BBC Get Creative Day in Wymondham at the beginning of the month proved popular with people dropping in for painting, leatherwork, film making and other crafts. So there was a great hubbub in the hall when the music started, and Ellie was up second. The opening Introduction had to battle against the conversation of busy and interested people, but silence fell by the time she was on to Urban Spiritual Blues, which went down very well. You can see the video of her performance on the website. Click on Audio Clips.
The English Baroque Choir is performing in St. Sepulchre’s, Holborn Viaduct in London on November 19th at 7.30pm. The theme of the concert is “Light in the Darkness” and the music by Tallis, Dering, Elgar, Rutter, Lauridsen, Whitacre and Andrew’s Choral Fanfare will certainly bring light into a winter evening. Admission is free.
Gresham’s School Chapel Choir will be performing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot at 11am on Saturday June 18th in the School Chapel. This well-known spiritual, published by OUP, was already part of their repertoire.
News came in this morning, that Taverham Hall School Chapel Choir under their Music director Jonty Tan will perform The Bringer of Life at their Summer Concert. This piece for upper voices was written for the Norfolk Womens’ Institutes Annual Carol Service in St. Andrew’s Church, Norwich. Unlike most people’s idea of how songs come to be written, Andrew used to write the music and then give it to me to write some words to fit, which were singable. Who first said only second-rate poetry would make a song lyric? That exquisite and precise word you might come up with, would be ruthlessly sacrificed to the demands of the music. Heigh-ho.
March 30th
Brigitte Williams, clarinettist with Norwich City Concert Band and family friend, recently went to a wind band weekend organised by York Wind Band at Losehill Hall, Castleton in Derbyshire. This is an annual event when members from Norwich Concert band join the players from York. Enterprising Brigitte took the wind band version of Broadland Day, which they played under the baton of Judith Wallace from Sheffield. Brigitte reports:
"it was quite challenging for us, but the band enjoyed having a go at something different"
Broadland Day was originally written for brass band to celebrate our move to Norfolk. The music takes the listener from dawn to dusk on a day on the Norfolk Broads. Initially the title was A Day on the Broads but this had to be changed for the American market...... Published by Boosey and Hawkes, it was played on Radio 3's Bandstand programme by Fairey Engineering Band conducted by Roy Newsome.
My Beloved Spake, a setting of words from the Song of Solomon, will be the anthem sung at Choral Evensong in Wimborne Minster on Saturday 23rd July at 6pm. This service is the climax of a week of daily cathedral-style evensong in Dorset churches by singers on the Laudemus! residential course (director Jeremy Jackman) held from 17th-23rd July at Bryanston School, Blandford Forum. All enquiries to: 151 Mount View Rd, London N4 4JT;
tel: 020 8341 64 can be found at or email Marianne Barton, the administrator on laudemus@aol.com
March 22nd
March has been a busy month, sending out more requested music, checking the work being computerised and talking to potential performers.
The Bread and the Wine is proving popular and will have had at least five outings by the end of the month.
BBC Get Creative comes to North Wymondham Community Centre on Saturday 2nd April. The opportunity to try various crafts, painting and creative writing has been extended with a music workshop (12-2pm) led by Liz Reed, multi-instrumentalist member of the ceilidh band Fezziwig. Take look at Liz’s website to see her beautiful flower paintings and details of the forthcoming exhibition at the Forum in Norwich. http://liz-reed.co.uk
As part of the session, Ellie Jackman will be reprising Introduction and Urban Spiritual Blues, the song Andrew wrote for the performance element of her music GCSE – some years ago. The music begins with an Introduction designed to steady the nerves before turning into Urban Spiritual Blues.
People dropping into the session can have a go themselves – solo or in a scratch choir. It should be fun.
Congratulations to Cawston Brass Band who were the winners of the Second Section at the London and Southern Counties Regionals last Saturday. The test piece was Philip Sparke’s TheMermaid of Zennor
“British Bandsman” tweeted - @ Cawston Band and David Stowell gave us another cracker. Excellent all round.
The Band are currently looking at Andrew’s brass band music with a view to playing
something later in the year. It will be in good hands.
March 3rd
The best laid plans of mice and men...
Changes to service patterns for Mothering Sunday on 6th March have affected information posted last week. Look on the events page for the re-scheduled performances of The Bread and the Wine, including the first performance at the vast and magnificent church of St. Nicholas, North Walsham on Sunday at 4pm.
A long-time mystery has been solved. I remember Andrew performing recorder music at a concert in Gissing many years ago. This was Rat Pieces - the music the Pied Piper of Hamelin might have played to draw away the rats which were plaguing the town. There are moments of virtuosity. However, I had never found anything with that title, and presumed the music was lost. Then, several sheets of manuscript turned up and once Henry ran through them on the piano, I recognised what I was listening to. The sample should be up on the website in the next few days, and if anyone would like to see the music, please let me know, and I will send the pdf. The Norwich branch of the Society of Recorder Players is looking at all the recorder music at the moment to assess
the standard needed to perform the works, which will be very helpful.
In the meantime, the requests for music continue to roll in.
February 23rd
We have our first performance!
The Bread and the Wine which Andrew wrote for the Wedding Communion of Meryl and Aubrey Sitch will be used at two churches in March. Adrian Kitchen will be playing the piece at St Andrew’s Thelveton on Sunday 6th March. It’s quite fitting as Andrew was named after the church in Uxbridge near the airbase, where Bill was in the RAF band after the war.
Later in the month Adrian will be playing at St. Mary of Pity at Burgate in Suffolk. Burgate’s musical credentials are well-known. The Burgate Singers under the baton of Alain Judd present two performances a year from Bach and Haydn to Stravinsky and Honegger. It is a fascinating church. After the Great War, the Reverend Benjamin Appleyard who had been an army chaplain, came to Burgate and gave it an Anglo-Catholic makeover with trench art. The candlesticks and furnishings are made out of shell-cases.
On the website you can now see the first page of In the Garden, a duet for soprano and baritone with organ/piano accompaniment, based on Mary Magdalene’s meeting with Jesus after the Resurrection, when she mistook him for the gardener. The music is simple, but affecting. Take a look. Easter is early this year.
Three other works have gone up on the website: Chanson for solo ‘cello which Andrew sent to the much missed Dougie Cummings for advice on the bowing marks. Dougie’s letter describes the piece as beautiful, and he writes “1 enjoyed playing it immensely”; The River is a challenging choral work charting the progress of a river from source to sea; The Tivetshall Carol was written for the children of Tivetshall School, and performed by them, with composer at the keyboard, on ITV’s About Anglia in 1989.
February 15th
It's a month since we started sending out the booklet and the response in requests for music has been overwhelming. So many of you have written with memories of Andrew and even pieces of music we didn't know existed. Steve Eggleton, sculptor, woodcarver, Christian playwright, sent me a Gloria for male voice choir written for one of his Christmas plays at Banham.
Other pieces of music have come to light since the booklet was compiled. Look out for A Study in Scarlet for solo violin, the sort of music Sherlock Holmes might have played while contemplating a knotty problem and Rhosneigr
a recorder duet, named for the village on Anglesey where we spent our honeymoon. These should be on the website soon.
It was sad to hear of the death of Terry Wogan in early February. So often the tributes to him included Terry singing "The Floral Dance". Following the success of The Brighouse and Rastrick Band's instrumental version, and Terry's determination to sing along, an enterprising record producer contacted Andrew to arrange the song for Terry and the late great Hanwell Band.
This morning I received letter from the Rector of Diss generously offering St. Mary's Church and its splendid grand piano as a venue for a concert of Andrew's music. Lots of planning ahead...
Andrew Jackman 70 Launches
The Jackmans are excited and proud to launch Andrew Jackman:70 - a project to celebrate Andrew Jackman who would have been 70 this year.
Musicians around the world are being contacted to perform any of Andrew's compositions.
Performances will be publicised on this website, (and hopefully a recording or two will be submitted!)
Watch this space for regular updates, and if you know someone who would be interested in participating, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Music in the drawer is dead. When the notes float in the air, the music lives
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