Appreciation by Alan Herringshaw

The Keene Room at Christchurch, Clarendon park Road is described by Christchurch’s web page as having a floor area of 50 m² with seating for about 30, and as being suitable for smaller meetings. Sounds eminently suitable for a LMS meeting—only just, on this occasion, as around 25 of us gathered to listen to Neil Crutchley, President of Leicester Music Society, give us a glimpse of the development of the Society over the last 75 years in his talk entitled “Leicester Music Society at 75”.

Neil guided us through the early years of the society without falling into the trap of just listing the speakers or subject matter. We began with a recording almost contemporary with the beginnings of the society, “Portia” from Frederick Rosse’s Merchant of Venice Suite. From there we were treated to the tenor voice of Heddle Nash and an Oratorio from Handel. Onwards from which we landed upon amongst others the Vicar of Humberstone, David Willcocks conducting The Choir from Kings College and Vaughan Williams, who appeared as a rather serious dismembered head!

The evening progressed with various musical illustrations to point out the progression of techniques of recording and how this development led to the proliferation of better sound reproduction in the home. I, myself, was reminded of the first “radiogram” that appeared in my parent’s home that had a power output of two watts per channel.

This improvement has proved to be a continuing challenge to encourage attendance at meetings. It is pleasing to point out that this talk on the history of the recorded music society bucked the trend of attendance where close to double the expected number came to listen to Neil.

Neil managed to transport us all in true time travel style right through from the early 1950’s to today. with a musically illustrated, well-honed accuracy and much loved stories!

Everyone left with the feeling that they had been reminded of a progression over the last 75 years due not only to the speaker’s recollections but also the variety of musical styles. A most enjoyable evening.