Anne Gregson

Well we didn’t have a procession with bellringing in the end because bellringers prefer not to play much out of their comfort zone – understandable when you consider they’re trying to control many hundredweights of metal safely. However my investigations into the world of church bells is leading me towards something called Ellacombe Chimes, a way of playing church bells melodically. This could prove very interesting. More anon.

It’s that time of the year when we gird up our loins for Christmas carols. Mind you, we’re not talking about the carols you sing in churches nowadays but the old  carols, the gallery carols that were sung in the 18th and early 19th centuries and still survive in places like the pubs around Sheffield. We sing them in pubs around Bradford on Avon and it’s my job to organise and lead the band that plays for the carols. More about what we do here.

I’m now starting the second year of my Masters Composition course at Bath Spa, and the University marks this with a small party for all their Masters music students. Isn’t that nice of them?

Shhh, don’t tell anyone but I have plans to compose something with church bells and brass instruments and maybe even a procession.  It could happen in a town near you … if that town is Bradford on Avon then it almost certainly will!

On 1st of May 2015 the Kreutzer Quartet gave the premier performance of my new work, Adagio for String Quartet and I must say they played it beautifully. You can hear it on the Listen page of this website.