Why Archway Melodies?
Daphne: Archway Melodies was born out of my need for music and musicals as a classroom music teacher in London, England. We would put on two musicals a year and I found it hard to find suitable material that:
- Fitted my age group,
- Had enough songs with great, easy to learn music
- Didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
So... Tony (my husband) and I wrote our own musicals. Some of the ideas came from my headteacher, Nina Achenbach, whilst others were just from our own heads...
Tony: When Daphne secured the music teacher position, I had to listen to the music that was available to her. I thought “I can do that!” and so started to write for children. It was a new experience, but I learned a great deal about writing for children, and resolved to create music, that was easy to learn and yet not banal and over-simple.
Daphne: I was teaching class recorder to Year 5 students and had three students that were ahead of the rest and I wanted to give them a challenge. I asked Tony to write a simple trio for them, which he did right away! However, I had to tell him that it was too hard for them. Tony: It happens... Daphne: So he wrote five more movements, starting with something very simple and then adding new notes and techniques in each subsequent movement. This was "Images"...
Tony: Writing the trio was fun. It was simple music but contained lots of musicality. I went on to write the duet and solo versions with each set of music being fun, a bit challenging and musically pleasing.
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