#12 The Future of Music at Wadham | with Tom Hammond-Davies

In this episode, we talk to our new Director of Music, Tom Hammond-Davies. The Director of Music role has been newly envisioned, and Tom shares what this might mean for the future of music at Wadham. He also opens up about his own musical journey, confesses his latest listening habits, and shares how you can get involved with music in College.

To learn more about the new Wadham College Music Society, head to: https://wadhamcollegemusic.wixsite.com/wcms

Music Referenced in the episode:

Organ Music: Charles Marie Widor, Toccata (from Symphony No. 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmh3FHLz40w  (played by Wayne Marshall)
Charles Wood, O Thou the central orb  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIAqZSfkJVI
Bach motet: J S Bach, Der Geist hilft  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUIwlujG0rA
George Shearing, Lullaby of Birdland   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHlZ94wNF74
Erroll Garner, Misty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_tAU3GM9XI
Beyoncé's Renaissance https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mNIHUDGPKrgY-6pSM1JLFWhUc5iDHg1io&si=Rbojuejc95Pb1NGo 

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Transcript

Martin: Well, Tom, thanks so much for your time. Thanks so much for letting me into your office. Is this your first day in the office? It seems like you're being set up with a lot of stuff.

Tom: Not my first day in the office, but it certainly feels like it now that I've been able to log onto my computer. So success.

Martin: What were you doing prior to that? Just on your phone?

Tom: I think I was, yes. Struggling with the small screen on my phone trying to reply to lots and lots of enthusiastic emails about welcoming me to the college. It's been a very warm welcome here. I've very excited to get going.

Martin: How long have you been in post now?

Tom: Since the 1st of September, so. Almost two weeks. 

Martin: Very fresh. What have you enjoyed the most so far?

Tom: I think the thing I've noticed that’s brought me a lot of joy so far, is the sense of community in the college and the rich history that permeates the college, The blend of tradition and innovation. That’s something that I find incredibly fascinating, and I can't wait to get started.

Martin: Fabulous. Well, I can't wait to see what you do when you get started. And speaking of what you do, your role is the director of music. And so could you maybe explain a bit about what that role is or how you see it?

Tom: The role of director of music is a curator of culture and a facilitator of musical experiences. In a college like this, I'd say that Wadham is unique because it's a new post. My predecessor, Katie, was director of Chapel Music. Thanks to a generous benefactor’s legacy, the role has been expanded to director of Music, which means a more college wide brief.

And so my job is not just about leading choir and organising concerts, but also about fostering a love for music among students across the college and helping them to explore their musical talents.

Martin: So that's quite a shift in the role, a broadening and expanding of it. What role would music play in the college outside of the chapel?

Tom: I think music plays a multifaceted role at Wadham. It's a source of artistic expression and a bridge between diverse backgrounds, a means to build strong bonds within the college community and beyond the chapel, which already has all these forms of expression going on. I'd like to see music continue to enrich the lives of students and staff by offering a wide range of musical opportunities and experiences across the board.

Martin: What might some of that look like?

Tom: I think we could look at ways to tap into the different genres across music to enliven and bring about totally differing things. There's something wonderful about Wadham, which is the Holywell Music Room as a jewel, a sort of beacon of musical expression in the city. The oldest purpose-built concert hall in Europe. I mean, it is a really extraordinary space which could be used for not just classical music expression, but also indie rock and jazz and all sorts of other forms and of course, music from different cultures and other religious beliefs as well, which I'm always fascinated to bring into the mix.

Martin: Do you feel like there are any these different streams bubbling up already here within the college?

Tom: Very much. There's been a lot of fecundity in this region, not least because of the efforts of Eric Clarke and Karl Kugler. So I'd like to build on those and make sure that they thrive. Patrick Brennan, who's just left as John Brookman music scholar, was incredibly instrumental in bringing about rock bands and his performance of Okay Computer by Radiohead was a seminal moment in the landscape of music making here at Wadham, and I think that's a wonderful thing.

Martin: Did you have the opportunity to see that?

Tom: I did not. I may have been stuck in the choral tradition somewhere, unable to escape. Alas.

Martin: Alas indeed. So I'm guessing you are sort of… a fan of music… you could say.

Tom: I think that's a very diplomatic way of putting it. Mm hmm. Understated.

Martin: Yeah. So I'm curious to know how your musical journey began, what some of your formative experiences were, things like that.

Tom: I started life as a chorister in London, and then I became fascinated by the King of Instruments, the organ.

Martin: Oh, the King.

Tom: The King. And some of my formative experiences include practicing the organ late at night in a darkened abbey, and having the space to yourself in the gloom inspires all sorts of imaginative visions, I suppose, of what could be there in the dark with the flickering candlelight. But couple that with the mighty sound of an organ that you have total command of, and it is just the most transcendent and cosmic experience.

So that left an indelible impression on me, and I went to study at Oxford to be an organ scholar at Hartford College next door. Hartford Choir and Wadham Choir would often find themselves mixing on a Sunday evening after Evensong in the King's Arms. And so I've known lots of people from Wadham over the years.

And it naturally led me to being an organ scholar, naturally led me to wanting to direct choirs because at the time, Hartford - and I think it still is - it's not led by a director of music. It's still led by the organ scholars. I think there is an advisor in post now, but a lot of the work is done on the job. You learn on the job. 

And I got the bug for conducting quite early on and it led me to want to take choral conducting as a master's program at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. So I studied there for a couple of years and developed my deep love for vocal music. The thing about Voices is that no two voices are the same. It's not like a couple of violins or saxophones that can be very, very similar. And so when you have the ability to blend voices together, it's the most powerful human experience that becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Martin: It sounds like intertwined in your journey, there's a real emphasis on the performance of that music. You described how it was playing the organ in the dark, that kind of performance of it, rather than, “Oh, I heard a song and that sparked something within me”. But have there also been particular pieces or things you've heard that have been an influence in your journey in particular?

Tom: I would say that I find that I develop a relationship with music much more viscerally when I perform it or do it. There are pieces that I like, but the ones that stay with me are the ones that have had a physical, transformative impact on me.

Martin: Are there particular pieces that have had that effect quite profoundly?

Tom: When I started as a chorister, the first thing I sang was this wonderful piece of Victorian choral music that's a favorite of a lot of choirs up and down the country. Charles Wood’s ‘O Thou the Central Orb’. And the words themselves are fairly sort of pungent. But the music is so ecstatic. It's a peaen almost, and it has a sort of what we call an A-B-A structure. So it sort of begins, there's a middle section and then it returns to familiar territory. And I just remember singing the return to the familiar territory with this enormous sense of pleasure and joy, because it soars to a dizzy height that you didn't achieve in the first time. So that evolution and singing to the rafters, which are very lofty in these kinds of cathedrals and spaces, so majestic. It was a transformative experience.

Martin: Maybe there's a version on Spotify I can link to something in the show notes.

Absolutely. I’d be very happy to share.

Martin: Great. Thanks very much. And so you've spoken a little bit about how you developed your career in this particular direction. How did that lead to you being here at Wadham?

Tom: I think my journey to Wadham has been a combination of passion for church music with a deep interest in education. And after completing my studies at Hartford, I found myself going to Magdalen College to sing there as a lay clerk and then New College for six years. So rubbing shoulders with students all the while in that capacity as a professional singer shifted my interests from my own self-interest to the interests of the younger generations coming through.

Tom: And it was all a gradual process. Every year that comes around in this place, we see new people full of exciting possibilities, and it just gets more and more exciting the further down the line you go. And as the generations come through and the professionals stick around, you find yourself before you know it… with a wonderful network of great and gifted students with whom you've worked.

And so that's been a real interest of mine. And when I started to think about my own personal journey as a Christian cradle Catholic, I was deeply moved by a performance that we did of one of the Bach motets at New College. And I thought to myself, “Well, who is this man?” And I knew him as an organist for sure. Wasn't terribly caught up by it, by his music, because it's terribly difficult.

And the organ music is at once mathematical and emotional. And it wasn't until I started to sing his stuff that I became more interested. And I got the bug and decided to immerse myself in Bach's music and founded the Oxford Bach soloists to do exactly that, to provide a 12 year project within which we can learn from each other and have an educational program.

And our choral scholarship program within that 12 year journey has been a huge success. We're now on year four of our choral scholarship program, and there are already alumni that I can call on who are doing amazing things in the professional realm. It's wonderful to see them go on to do great things. So we're about a quarter of the journey through, pandemic notwithstanding, and I saw Wadham’s advert for the job go up and I thought this was absolutely the right thing to do next.

The Oxford Bach Soloists is something that sits as a pan-university experience, and I think the undergraduate experience is unique when we're talking about music making and Wadham provided just the right amount of opportunity for me to do that.

Martin: That's cool. I'm interested to know how it is that you might encourage somebody, say, a student who's just started, who doesn't have a long history of doing music, how you might encourage them or inspire them to be involved or to consider whether it might be for them.

Tom: I think music is something that's deeply personal to everyone. It's a language, a form of communication that's existed across all cultures and all times in all places. So my answer to that is just to try to come along and try it out. I think when we're talking about the choir, what we tend to do in first week is to have an open rehearsal. Anyone can come along, see what it's all about, meet people, come again the following week to affirm that experience, if it was good. And then after that, there's a level of commitment that's required. But without trying or dipping a toe in the water, you'll never know.

Martin: Very true. Very true. Is there anything else you'd like to add about how the students or staff could get involved with music here?

Tom: I think there's going to be a lot of access points for music making. The first thing to do is to write to me. I'm always interested to hear about people who would love to do more music or start something new or get involved with something already in existence. We're resurrecting the Wadham College Music Society as a fulcrum for activity to happen.

Ryan Bloxham is the President and he is also somebody who would be very happy to hear from anybody who wants to find out more. The point of the Music Society is that it should be there as a crucible for new things to happen. If you have an idea that you want to get off the ground, speak to the music society or speak to me. We can probably find a little bit of funding for it as well.

Martin: That's great. Thanks so much and thank you for your time. Tom, just as we close I’m curious if there's anything in particular you're enjoying listening to?

Tom: Well, Martin, lately, my musical taste has been quite diverse.

Martin: Exciting.

Tom: I’ve found myself drawn to a blend of jazz legends like George Shearing. He's that remarkable pianist from Battersea. Congenitally blind and wrote Lullaby of Birdland. And when I was the cocktail pianist at the Randolph for about 14 years, I used to play a lot of his music because it was very much in the center of the keyboard. He developed a style called the block chord style.

And when you're having tea or cocktails, you don't really want the piano to be at the foreground. You want it to be supportive. And so his music for me was just the perfect, perfect source of support for a sophisticated evening, but also for a personal development on my side. 

In addition to the classics, I've been listening to Beyonce's Renaissance.

Martin: Yes, my wife and I actually bought that just this last week. 

Tom: Oh, cool. Yeah. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? 

Martin: It's beats for days.

Tom: Yeah. I mean, when you consider that she recorded it during the lockdown, for those in isolation, I think what struck me was that it's a celebration of post 1970s club and dance and house genres that are all linked to a kind of underground movement of drag culture and I suppose what struck me when I was reading about it was that Beyonce was introduced to that kind of black ball culture when she spent time with her gay cousin, Uncle Johnny, and he played a pivotal role in her in her life until he died tragically of AIDS.

And so she has always had that as part of her life. And I think it's a wonderful way of paying tribute to him, but also to the wider marginalized folk as well with the LGBTQ Plus.

Martin: Well, hit me up with some links, and I will again include them in the show notes. Also, curious about your time at the Randolph. Any funny stories from that season?

Tom: Oh, well, I used to see quite a number of the great and the good popping in and out. I once remember playing for the band, JLS as one of the band members was getting married at Blenheim, and so they were enjoying themselves. Ralph Fine's popped in once or twice because his family seated at Banbury so not too far.

But I remember very, very fondly that the head of the bar, the sort of head of the cocktail bar, Alice had been there for years and years and years, and she was deeply friendly with Colin Dexter and she had this amazing ability to sell more bottles of Krug in the evening than anyone else.

Martin: Special skill 

Tom: Very special. And so given her abilities to shift so much stock, she wasn't shy in offering me the odd free glass whilst I was playing.

Martin: Good perk.

Tom: Very elegant lady.

Martin: Thanks for sharing and thanks again for your time. Tom. 

OUTRO: Thank you for listening. If you have any comments or feedback about Wadcast, we'd love to hear from you and continue improving the show. You can leave your feedback by heading to www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/wadcast