As ever this Year’s House Music Competition was a triumph and an extraordinary pleasure for those attending. Mr Dawson, the new Head of Music at Oundle School in Northamptonshire, and one of the largest schools in the country, was immensely impressed with the quality of the players. He congratulated me heartily but of course it is so many other people who more properly deserve the congratulations. I must point out the extraordinary efforts to which Miss Biddell has gone to, over the past fortnight, to hear all the auditions (which were in their hundreds) and then to work with the finalists. The fact that music is within the bricks and mortar of the buildings and in the soul of the school is also very much to do with Miss Biddell.

For me most of this week has been taken up with the Choir Schools’ Association Conference which was held, this year, at Christ Church. Proceedings kicked off with Choral Evensong broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. It was an extraordinary experience to see a building I know so well transformed into a recording studio. The choir was on breath-taking form and I would encourage you very strongly to listen to the recording either on Sunday afternoon, when it will be broadcast again, or on iplayer. Mr Holder had chosen a hugely ambitious programme which began with a piece by our first organist, the great John Taverner, Dum Transisset Sabbatum, a haunting piece of great profundity and beauty, which had been written by Taverner to be sung in the Cathedral itself. Almost all of the music was unaccompanied, making it far harder than were it supported by an organ, and yet it was utterly perfect. I felt very proud of our choristers and very many of the Heads of the other choir schools were extremely impressed by what they had heard.