Tunes from Tring Schoolboy's Music Book (1866) being performed

Aylesbury March

It us just over a year since Beth Atkinson kindly donated William Henry Ewer's music exercise book, which records the music he was taught at Prospect House School, Tring, in 1866. The whole book can now be viewed online. While most of the pieces are well know. I have so far been unable to find out anything about one local piece called the "Aylesbury March" reproduced above.

A number of the pieces, including the "Aylesbury March" have been adapted to be played on handbells by the Tringers - a small local group of amateur handbell ringers - who will be playing it, and several other pieces from the book, as part of the Family Fun Day at  Tring Parish Church, organised by FOTCH (Friends of Tring Church Heritage) on Saturday, May 6th. A number of different music groups, including several primary school choirs, will be in the church, and the Tringers are scheduled to play at 11.00 am.

The Tringers performing in Tring Church for the FOTCH Family Fun Day in 2016

An 1866 Music Work Book from Prospect House School, Tring

Beth Atkinson has donated a charming school music work book that had belonged to William Henry Ewer (1852-1871) of Lilley, when he was attending Prospect House School, Tring, in 1866. This will shortly be passed to the Tring Local History Museum, and hopefully will go on display later this year.

Many of the tunes are ones we still know today, and get harder as you go through the book. I am currently trying to track down some of the unfamiliar tunes, and some, like the Aylesbury March, shown here, may well be of local origin and not recorded elsewhere. If you can identify any of them let me know in a comment below.

Click here for a full list of tunes and a copy of the music..

Details are also given of William Ewer's short life.