William Sterling

An introduction to the music section

The Royal Citole or Gittern was probably originally made for King Edward I or King Edward II around 1300 and is elaborately carved with the sort of scenes of everyday life found in Books of Hours. There is a Centaur hunting, a peasant chopping wood, another thrashing acorns from the trees for his pigs and the original rabbit with the caught in headlights look as an arrow hurtles towards it. The end is carved as a magnificent dragon. There is also the coat of arms on it of Queen Elizabeth I and her favourite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, suggesting that its conversion to a violin was done for Elizabeth to use as a gift when she visited the earl at his castle in Warwickshire. Image © Trustees of the British Museum
My earliest memory of music making was conducting the school band mostly consisting of percussion instruments with our teacher, Mrs Distin, filling in the melody and harmony on the piano. I had to announce to the audience of parents and friends that we were about to play "Minuet in G by John Sebastian Bach". My proud mother took a photo of me conducting which I believe my sister has in the family album. I was five years old. Read more »

SPOTLIGHT: Music

Music composition

I wrote my first work when I was five.  It was for chime bars and Mrs Distin called it “William’s Tune”.  This was 1963 and I think she was very surprised that a five year old would be able to come up with an original tune.  I had played all the ones she had given… Read more »

Serge Prokofiev

Prokofiev and Shostakovich The course examined how two Russian composers came to terms with the constraints of living and working under the Soviet regime. Unlike their contemporaries, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky, both Prokofiev and Shostakovich found ways to express their artistic integrity within the strict confines of Soviet Russia. They were both censored at times but… Read more »

Handel and Royalty

Handel fell in love with England on his first visit writing music for Queen Anne herself. He was reconciled with George I partly with his Water Music Suite and wrote the coronation music for George II. It is an examination of how closely his music and career was bound up with the British royal family… Read more »

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