On February 5th 2016 I attended the annual Aylesbury Grammar School House Music competition, and this is a review of the final act, Ridley House. Each house must play three pieces to an audience of friends and family, and a panel of three judges – Mr Nathan, Director of Music at AGS, Mr Sturgeon, Headmaster, and guest adjudicator, Mr Daniel Mace. I have seen the house music competition every year since I joined AGS, so this was my fourth time. Ridley's three pieces were Maybe You're Right by the Barenaked Ladies, Piano Man by Billy Joel and Just by Radiohead.
Maybe You're Right started with two violins and a cello playing long notes – this sounded quite out of tune and empty. This was then joined by the lead singer, who had an occasionally pitchy and weak voice, and a strong rhythm section. The chorus added saxophones, trombones, trumpets, a clarinet and a French horn, which added to the overall sound, but some were quite out of time and out of tune. A choir joined in the last chorus again adding to the depth of sound. This piece was probably Ridley's weakest. Piano Man was led by a fantastic piano player, who was joined by harmonica and a very strong singer with a good voice. The rest of the rhythm section and a harp was then added. I personally think the harp was a bit unnecessary and you couldn't really hear it. This was by far their strongest piece. Their final piece, Radiohead's Just, was poorly arranged with random saxophone lines and too many saxophones and this didn't suit the piece. The singer for this piece was ok although a bit pitchy at times. Ridley's house music this year could have had more variety as all three pieces were pop songs – other houses chose to do jazz or classical pieces as well.
I would definitely recommend the AGS house competition as there is always a great atmosphere and great music. From this I learnt that if I become house music captain I will have to prepare well in advance, make sure the arrangements of the pieces are as good as they can be and get really organised.
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