Current Summer School News

The pictures are of Wortley Hall where the 2009 Summer School was held from 15th August until the 21st. Information and a description of the school are given on other parts of this site. Activity rooms are handily close to accommodation, so partially disabled members can take part. The school structure has evolved over a 63 year period and is unusual in the way it allows students to follow a mix of interests Now click on The School to find out more. A full report is being prepared, and feedback from those attending will be taken into account as we begin planning for 2010. (Dates for the 2010 School are 14th to 20th August)

(The WMA Summer School has been supported by the Musicians' Union, The Communication Workers' Union. and Unison)

Our site will eventually have lists of publications we can make available. We will tell of leading figures in music who have been life Vice-Presidents, who occupied or occupy other leading positions in the WMA, and we will write something about their activities and achievements. There are also sister organisations about which we will tell you that have similar traditions to those of the WMA.
ItFrom Pete Seeger, July 11, 2008, Beacon NY, USA Dear Fellow WMA members – I write to comment on the question "What is A "Folk" Song" in the summer Bulletin. My father, musicologist Charles Seeger, urged us to realize that the folk process has been going on through human history. Cooks rearrange old recipes, lawyers rearrange old laws, musicians rearrange old melodies, rhythms, harmonies, lyrics. In mid-19th Century "volkmusik" meant the music of the peasant class, ancient and anonymous. A century ago John Lomax in Texas collected cowboy songs, neither ancient nor anonymous. Today a college student strums a guitar and sings words into a mike, - words he just put together. But the tonic-dominant harmony perhaps was known in ancient times. Now let’s use it to get folks together. Pete Seeger

Our site will eventually have lists of publications we can make available. We will tell of leading figures in music who have been life Vice-Presidents, who occupied or occupy other leading positions in the WMA, and we will write something about their activities and achievements. There are also sister organisations about which we will tell you that have similar traditions to those of the WMA.

ItFrom Pete Seeger, July 11, 2008, Beacon NY, USA

Dear Fellow WMA members – I write to comment on the question "What is A "Folk" Song" in the summer Bulletin. My father, musicologist Charles Seeger, urged us to realize that the folk process has been going on through human history. Cooks rearrange old recipes, lawyers rearrange old laws, musicians rearrange old melodies, rhythms, harmonies, lyrics. In mid-19th Century "volkmusik" meant the music of the peasant class, ancient and anonymous. A century ago John Lomax in Texas collected cowboy songs, neither ancient nor anonymous. Today a college student strums a guitar and sings words into a mike, - words he just put together. But the tonic-dominant harmony perhaps was known in ancient times. Now let’s use it to get folks together. Pete Seeger

NAVIGATION

Wortley Hall (Summer School Site)

The WMA received lottery Funding via "Awards for All"

Autumn Music-Making Weekend and Composer's Concert.

Our music weekend beginning Friday evening in early October 2009 was a very pleasant and relaxed occasion. One session, was given to the performance of work composed by WMA members past and present, including a piece from the new opera Dic Penderyn, written by John Jordan, our President, which was introduced at the 2009 Summer School.

On Mayday 2010 in Trafalgar Square there was a choir drawn from the London Radical choirs, singing, as the marchers entered the square, a programme of songs celebrating this special day for working people.

Joining the WMA?

You do not have to be a practising musician; but someone supporting the WMA's aims.
We see music as a potential influence towards a more just society.
We are not affiliated to any political party.
However, we try to promote peace and the work of the labour movement.
Everyone is welcome regardless of musical skills and interests.
The WMA is particularly pleased to invite members from ethnic minority groups.
We wish to encourage the use of music as a campaigning activity.
Membership is open to everyone who supports the WMA aims. (click on Contacts)

Hiroshima Day

Two of the London-based choirs, the WMA Singers, and Raised Voices, lead the singing at the annual Hiroshima ceremony held in Tavistock Gardens on the 6th August. The ceremony begins at 12 noon. The event is organised by London CND and compered by Jeremy Corbyn, MP. To read more click Hiroshima

WMA Summer School

The WMA Summer School must be one of the best value-for-money Music Schools currently in existence We do not spend money on extravagent brochures with great spaces of nothing,just to fit with some feckless modern ideas about layout. Ours costs over and above the costs we pay for accomodation are about a third of another school which has imitated a similar format to our courses. So all our spending is on essentials. As a result of a re-organisation our tutors are currently giving their services for just expenses. The result is a basic cost of £410. but click here for details.

If you would like a brochure and application form please contact us via - School Organiser, 12 St. Andrews Square, London, W11 1RH. tel 0207 7243 0920 or mavcook@talktalk.net We will then send a 2010 brochure when it is prepared.

Or ask by e-mail or phone from one of

Phone	E-mail
020 7243 0920	mavcook@talktalk.net
020 8699 1933	anne.schuman@btinternet.com
01442 865349	rabride@clara.co.uk

In the next Summer School August 2010 the opera from which selected scenes will be chosen is "Hugh the Drover", written by Ralph Vaughan-Williams.

In the next Summer School August 2010 the opera from which selected scenes will be chosen is "Hugh the Drover", written by Ralph Vaughan-Williams.