Last year Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a “First World War: then and now” small grant to Gloucester City Council for Gloucester based musician/producer George Moorey and musician/singer Leo Saunders to make two pieces of original music (the first 19 minutes, 14 seconds and the second 19 minutes, 18 seconds in length) inspired by and incorporating selected poems by the Gloucester War poet Ivor Gurney.
George and Leo recruited a team of musicians and carried out research at Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire Archives and the Soldiers of Gloucestershire and Gloucester Folk Museums before visiting Heron Primary and The Crypt Grammar schools to share their research and explore musical ideas and poetry with pupils in school workshop sessions.
Earlier in the day pupils will have worked with professional musicians to complete the music which will lead to the climax of the project: a performance in the Guildhall Theatre in the evening featuring an ambitious and diverse music group composed of pupils from both schools with musicians from the local area playing a dynamic blend of improvised musical styles that include folk, rock, pop, orchestral, choral and hip-hop in a one off exciting live community music experiment.