Listening to a serpent!

Recently I achieved something that I had wanted to do - I heard a serpent being played! I had seen one of these amazing instruments but never hear it; but at a concert put on by the Ridgeway Singers and Band one was played. The Ridgeway Singers and Band perform music from Dorset both old and occasionally new, specialising in West Gallery Music.

The concert was a collaboration with the Dorset History Centre to explore the wonderful store of Dorset Music the latter holds. They bought to life tunes, carols and folk songs from a range of historical sources including Thomas Hardy and William Barnes. And what was particularly exciting for me, a Blandfordian, were the three pieces by William Knapp, an 18th century composer and musician who composed the ‘Blandford Fire Anthem’ to commemorate the Great Fire of Blandford in 1731. This was preceded by readings from the description of the fire by Rev. Malachi Blake.

And the icing on the cake was that Tim Laycock handed over a small, handwritten music book to Sam Johnston to be kept safe by the Dorset History Centre.