Ivor Gurney Hall

February 2016 saw the opening of the Ivor Gurney Hall at the King's School, Gloucester, UK, located in the former grounds of St Peter's Abbey, now Gloucester Cathedral.

Gloucester Cathedral choristers are educated on scholarships at the King's School. The revamped Hall, its exposed roof beams now bright with pastel colours and its walls a warm light beige or cream, was formerly the Old Schoolroom (the school was founded in 1541 by Henry VIII), where all the pupils were taught in Victorian times.

Now the building's beautiful exterior has been sandblasted and renovated to restore the original light stone: this offsets the magnificent, 'rainbow' interior, which is the work of architect John Christophers, of Birmingham-based Associated Architects.

The new title of this Performing Arts venue commemorates the First World War musician and poet Ivor Gurney. In the early 1900s Gurney, who is also remembered on a plaque in the cathedral, was a King's School pupil, boy chorister, soloist and in due course articled assistant to the organist of Gloucester Cathedral, Dr Herbert Brewer.

Gurney's songs and writings have gained a tremendous following in the past decade. His poetry can be found in the current Oxford Book of English Verse, where it is rightly set alongside that of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.

At the opening, the Headmaster, Alistair Macnaughton, explained that the new space - once home to reluctant gymnasts - is already in use for music, drama and, increasingly, dance. The cathedral and hopefully the wider community will have a place there, too.

The opening music, led by the school's Director of Music John Pennington, included sixth-form pupil Beatrice Kinsey's ravishing, intensely musical performance of a violin solo, the 'Méditation' from Massenet's Thaïs; a moving, nigh-on perfect rendering by Joshua Saunders, Gloucester Cathedral's former Head Chorister, of Gurney's setting of John Fletcher's 'Sleep'; and 'In Flanders' ('I'm homesick for my hills again'): a thoughtful version for choir, by music master Lyndon Hills, of verses by Gurney's school friend F W Harvey, published in A Gloucestershire Lad (1916). This setting, like Iain Farrington's recent setting of Gurney's five Elizabethan Songs for the BBC Singers, demonstrated how effectively certain of Gurney's solo songs could be converted into choral items, just as his church anthems and organ pieces are now gradually being recovered.

The evening's guest of honour was Group Captain Anthony Boden, author and President of the Ivor Gurney Society, who gave a unique insight into the composer's life and achievements.

The renaming, as an Arts Centre, of this now beautiful, colourful, high-beamed building makes a perfect tribute in this, the centenary of Gurney's participation in the Great War campaigns of Aubers, Neuve-Chapelle, the Somme and ultimately, Ypres.

Posted: 7 March 2016

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