RSCM Scottish Voices

Perth Choral Evensong

2011-12-29T21:00:00.000Z

On Saturday 11th February 2012 at 4.30pm RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong in St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral, North Methven Street, Perth.

The music will be

Introit: Give us the wings of faith (Sir Ernest Bullock)
Responses: John Reading
Canticles: John Ireland in F
Anthem: Alleluya Psallat (William Mathias)
Final Responses: Edward Naylor

St Ninian's Cathedral is a fine building with a good acoustic, so come along and enjoy this wonderful music with us.

RSCM Scottish Voices currently has a few vacancies for singers, and an audition day is being held on Saturday 14th January 2012 in Glasgow.

If you fancy singing with us just get in touch using the contact details in the sidebar on the right, and even if you couldn't make it along on 14th January we'll still consider your application and if there are still places available (or if subsequent places become available at a later date) we'll arrange ad hoc auditions.

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T01:00:00.000Z

Happy Christmas to all members of RSCM Scottish Voices, and everyone who reads our stuff on this site. May all you wish for come true in 2012.

And good luck to those prospective new members who will be auditioning to join the choir on Saturday 14th January - and to those who are interested but haven't applied yet, it isn't too late and contact details are in the sidebar on the right.

We are recruiting new singers!

2011-12-09T20:34:00.001Z

Audition day

2011-11-28T21:44:00.001Z

An audition day is being arranged for prospective members of RSCM Scottish Voices. It'll take place on Saturday 14th January 2012 in St Mary's Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow, probably some time after 11.30am.

You can't just turn up on the day though, you have to have applied and been invited beforehand, so if you're interested in joining this exciting choir, please contact the administrator by email, the address and eligibility details are in the sidebar on the right.

End of season

2011-11-21T22:41:00.001Z

RSCM Scottish Voices has now reached the end of our successful 2011 season, and choir members have each turned their attention to their individual church choirs in the run up to Advent and Christmas.

The next time we meet together will be on Saturday 11th February 2012 in St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral in Perth, and more details of that service, and other assorted random posts, will appear here in due course.

Check out our "future services and events" page in the sidebar on the right to see what's in store for 2012, which is promising to be a busy year for us.

Lastly for now, we still have a few spaces for new singers in some parts, so please email the administrator, Gary Young, if you're interested in auditioning. Details of eligibility and contact details etc can be found in the sidebar on the right.

Choral Mass

2011-10-26T01:00:00.000+01:00

At 5.45pm on Saturday 5th November 2011 RSCM Scottish Voices will be taking part in Choral Mass in St Aloysius' RC Church, 25 Rose Street, Glasgow G3 6RE.

The Mass setting will be Missa Brevis by Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina (c1526-1594), and the communion Motet will be Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd (c1539-1623).

St Aloysius' is a genuinely stunning building, full of marble and fine decoration, and this service promises to be the wonderful culmination of the 2011 season for the choir, performing beautiful music in the type of building for which it was written.

Choir Place

2011-10-14T11:24:00.000+01:00

There's a new Website started called Choir Place which looks like it's going to be a good resource for choirs and choristers worldwide. Go and have a look at it, particularly if you're looking to join a choir but don't know where to start looking, or if your choir is thinking of "twinning" with another choir and you want some ideas of other similar groups.

Our page and profile has now been created as of this morning.

Edinburgh organ recitals

2011-10-02T01:00:00.001+01:00

To celebrate the recent refurbishment of the organ in St Peter's Episcopal Church, Lutton Place, Edinburgh EH8 9PE, there is to be a series of organ recitals, all beginning at 7.30pm, and with a retiring collection to defray expenses. The details below are taken from the church's own website.

Friday 21st October 2012 - Dr John Kitchen
Amongst many hats, John is the Director of Music at Old St Paul’s, the ‘Mother’ church of St Peter’s, Edinburgh City and University Organist of Edinburgh, and is greatly involved in teaching and promoting the organ.

Friday 4th November 2012 - Michael Harris
Master of Music of St Giles’ Cathedral, and a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, Michael is greatly involved in a wide variety of Edinburgh projects, especially in organ education.

Friday 18th November 2012 - Michael Bonaventure
A renowned recitalist, Michael, who is now London based, was Organist at St Peter’s between 1999 and 2003.

Friday 2nd December 2012 - Susan Landale
Having been born in Scotland and graduating from Edinburgh University, Susan was invited by the great French organist André Marchal to study with him in Paris, and has stayed there ever since. She is currently the Organist of Saint-Louis des Invalides, the Cathedral of the French Armed Forces, and in recognition of her world-wide career as a recitalist and teacher, in 2003 the Royal College of Organists awarded her the distinction of “Fellow honoris causa“. In 2008, she became the Honorary President of the Edinburgh Society of Organists.

Glasgow organ recital

2011-09-23T01:00:00.000+01:00

At 7.30pm on Saturday 1st October 2011 our Musical Director, Frikki Walker, will give the inaugural concert of the Makin Digital Organ, recently installed in All Saints Episcopal Church, Woodend Drive, Jordanhill, Glasgow G13 1QS.

The programme will be of organ classics including the wonderful Toccata and Fugue in d minor, by J S Bach.

Tickets are available on the door for a very reasonable £5 (£3 concession) so why not pop along and support Frikki and the people at All Saints.

2012 season

2011-09-18T22:00:00.000+01:00

The 2012 season of RSCM Scottish Voices has now been announced! All the dates and venues are listed below, and it's all also on the "Future Services and Events" page on the right.

On Saturday 11th February we shall be singing Choral Evensong in St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral, Perth, at 4.30pm (NB slightly later time than our normal services).

Saturday 17th March will see us give a recital at 4pm in the historic Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling.

Saturday 28th April will be Choral Evensong at 4pm in Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Edinburgh.

On Bank Holiday Monday 7th May we shall be joining with other RSCM Voices choirs in a festival in the stunning surroundings of York Minster

On Saturday 19th May we will be singing Choral Evensong at 5pm in historic Dunfermline Abbey.

Saturday 16th June sees us joining other choirs from around the country when we take part in the 2012 Scottish Triennial Festival in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh..

The weekend of 10th - 12th August sees us gathering for our 2012 annual residential rehearsal weekend, which is for choir members only and doesn't feature a public performance or service.

On Saturday 29th September the choir will be singing at the wedding of one of our fellow choir members in Brodick Parish Church on the beautiful island of Arran

Saturday 10th November will see us travel the furthest south we've been in Scotland so far, when we take part in Choral Evensong in St John's Episcopal Church in Dumfries.

Full details on all of the above, including music lists, will of course be listed here as and when more information becomes available.

RSCM Scottish Voices currently has a few vacancies for singers in some parts, and in the next few months we may be arranging a series of auditions at various places round the country. It's expected that there is likely to be a fair amount of competition for the spaces, so if you're interested in joining us for all the above dates and venues, why not get in touch now and be ahead of the field!

Wordle

2011-09-17T17:00:00.000+01:00

There's a website called Wordle which allows you to create word clouds based on what's written on a particular site, and these word clouds give a graphic representation of what the site's all about as they give greater prominence to words the more they are used.

Our Wordle word cloud, covering I think from as far back as October 2010 but I'm not 100% sure, is below. I think it's quite pretty and I'm glad I haven't spotted any swearwords yet!

Organ and Choir

2011-09-10T14:26:00.001+01:00

On Saturday 17th September RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong at 4pm in St Mary's Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow, and music will include:

Laudate Nomen Domini (Christopher Tye)
Preces and Responses (Bernard Rose)
Psalm 89
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in G (Herbert Sumsion)
Faire is the Heaven (William Harris).

Click on the image on the left to see the poster in a bigger size.

The night before that however, on Friday 16th September at 7.30pm Michael Bawtree, Director of Music of Glasgow Chamber Choir, will be giving an organ recital to raise funds for the Cathedral music programme and also for the restoration of the instrument at St Margaret's Episcopal Church, Newlands, Glasgow. The programme pairs grand British music with more reflective pieces by French composers Langlais and Bonnet and JS Bach.

No tickets are needed - instead, donations will be accepted and split between the two music funds. The hour-long recital will be followed by refreshments.

If you can't make the concert, you can come to St Paul's Cathedral in London on Sunday 18 September, or Notre-Dame in Paris on Sunday 25 September where some of the same music will be on offer!

Michael Bawtree

GLASGOW PROGRAMME:

Overture to the Occasional Oratorio
George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)

Cantique (Folkloric Suite)
Jean Langlais (1907-1991)

Allegro moderato (from Organ Sonata)
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele BWV 654
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Fantasia in G minor Op. 136
York Bowen (1884-1961)

Nocturne (from Douze Pièces pour Grand Orgue Op. 5)
Joseph Bonnet (1884-1944)

Moto ostinato (from Sunday Music)
Petr Eben (1929-2007)

SUBSEQUENT CONCERTS:

SUNDAY 18 September, 4.45pm
St Paul's Cathedral, London

SUNDAY 25 September, 4.30pm
Notre-Dame de Paris, France

Director met

2011-09-08T01:20:00.002+01:00

This evening (well, technically last night since it's now after 1am) RSCM Scottish Voices had the pleasure of singing in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow at the Meet the Director event organised by the RSCM Scotland committee.

We had been asked by RSCM Scotland to provide some music at the start of this event, so we sang four pieces, Laudate Nomen Domini by Christopher Tye, Tree of Life by Marty Haugen and arranged by Frikki Walker, Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd, and Sanctus I and II from the Missa Brevis by Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina. Our Musical Director, Frikki Walker, was unavailable due to a prior engagement, but thankfully we have the expertise of our assistant Musical Director and Organist Richard Walmsley to call on, so he was the man in charge. It's a great luxury having two such fine musicians to work with.

The singing went very well, I thought, and everyone seemed happy, and despite a poor turnout and a later than advertised start which kept the choir hanging around at a bit of a loose end, the evening went very well.

Lindsay Gray has been Director of the Royal School of Church Music for about three years, and comes from a background of having sung in the choirs of Kings College Cambridge and Durham Cathedral, to name but two. A languages teacher, he was headmaster of Llandaff Cathedral school for 14 years before becoming the top man at the RSCM. After giving us a flavour of his own background, he spoke very well on his role and that of the RSCM, touching on various resources available to affiliated choirs, before taking part in a short question and answer session with those gathered. If you get the opportunity to hear Lindsay at a similar gathering, I'd suggest you take the chance.

Then it was on to the wine and nibbles at the back of the Cathedral, with lots of simultaneous conversations mainly centred on church music, as far as I could gather.

Then, on to the pub where six of us had a small refreshment and a couple of pizzas to stave off any stray hunger and thirst, with more chat in a less formal arena. And a small part of the chat was when I revealed to the assembled company the existence of a Cathedral Choir Pubs website, created and run by Richard Shakeshaft who sings at Lichfield. Have a look at it, it's a useful resource!

Hence only getting round to typing this at one in the morning!

I had been told before meeting Lindsay that he's a nice guy, but you know what? He actually IS a nice guy! He's in Scotland for a few days, this being day one, and hopefully despite the poor turnout for the RSCM Scotland event he at least enjoyed what RSCM Scottish Voices sang for him, I know we enjoyed singing it.

So, the next time YOU can hear us is in a little over a week, on Saturday 17th September, again in St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, when we shall be singing Choral Evensong at 4pm

September events

2011-09-03T09:24:00.000+01:00

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow at 4pm on Saturday 17th September is the next time you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing in a service. It will be Choral Evensong, and we will be singing:

Laudate Nomen Domini (Christopher Tye)
Preces and Responses (Bernard Rose)
Psalm 89
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in G (Herbert Sumsion)
Faire is the Heaven (William Harris)

Before then, at 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th September you'll be able to hear us very briefly if you're a personal RSCM member or a member of an affiliated choir as we perform for only a few minutes at the Meet the Director event in St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow organised by RSCM Scotland when members of the RSCM can, as the title suggests, come to meet Lindsay Gray, the Director of the Royal School of Church Music, and listen to him speak about the work of the RSCM. If it works, this link should open a PDF poster which is on the RSCM Scotland website relating to the event. You can't just turn up, you need to register for this event and details of how to go about that are on the RSCM Scotland website.

For those who are members of RSCM and who have sight of their inhouse publication The Network you may already be aware of the Meet the Director event, but that publication wrongly states that the choir will be performing a recital, and in fact the PDF poster on the RSCM Scotland website says it's a concert. It won't be anything like a recital or concert, it's merely us singing a few pieces at the start of the evening, and it was never going to be anything other than that!

Free Song Recital in Glasgow

2011-08-20T22:36:00.000+01:00

Margaret Walker, daughter of the Director of Music of RSCM Scottish Voices, will be presenting a song recital in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow at 7pm on Friday 26 August 2011.

Margaret is studying in Cambridge, where she has been a choral scholar in the world famous choir at Trinity College, and has spent the last year studying singing at the Conservatorio G Tartini in Trieste. She will be accompanied by Timothy Ravalde, a former organ scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge and currently Assistant Organist at Chichester Cathedral. The programme, which will last about an hour, will include music by Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Mozart, Bellini and Tosti. Admission is free, with a retiring collection.

Programme:

A. Vivaldi: “O servi, volate” from “Juditha Triumphans”
J. S. Bach: “Blute nur, du liebes Herz” from “St. Matthew Passion”
G. F. Handel: “Non disperar” and “Se pietà di me non senti” from “Giulio Cesare”
F. J. Haydn: “Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün” from “The Creation”
W. A. Mozart: “Als Luise die Briefe”
V. Bellini: “L’Abbandono”
V. Bellini: “Dolente immagine di Fille mia”
F. P. Tosti: “Sogno”
F. P. Tosti: “Il pescatore canta”

Biographies:

MARGARET WALKER: Born in 1990, Margaret is in her Third Year studying Italian at Trinity College, Cambridge. She has just finished her year abroad where she studied singing at the Conservatorio G Tartini in Trieste.

Brought up in Glasgow, Margaret was a pupil at Notre Dame High School for Girls, was a member of the RSNO Junior Chorus for 11 years, and was also a member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland. She has sung in regular broadcasts on BBC Radios 2 and 4 with the Choir of St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, and reached the finals of BBC Radio Young Chorister of the Year in 2006. Margaret has also featured on TV, twice featuring as a soloist on BBC ‘Songs of Praise’, and also singing solo on BBC Scotland’s Watchnight Service on Christmas Eve 2006. During her first two years at Cambridge, Margaret was a Choral Scholar in the choir of Trinity College, touring to Germany, California and Australia, and featured on several critically acclaimed CDs. In addition to her regular choir commitments, Margaret regularly performs in concerts, recitals and student operas. In June 2011, she returned to Cambridge to sing soprano in a one-to-a-part performance of the Bach St Matthew Passion with Nicholas Mulroy and Margaret Faultless, and also sang the soprano solos in the Mozart Coronation Mass in the St. John’s College Choir May Week Concert conducted by Andrew Nethsinga with members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Future projects include the role of Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance at the Minack Theatre, Penzance in September.

TIMOTHY RAVALDE: Timothy Ravalde is the Assistant Organist of Chichester Cathedral where he is responsible for accompanying the daily choral services and assisting with the training of the choir. He was educated at the Nelson Thomlinson School, Wigton. While in sixth form he was Organ Scholar of Carlisle Cathedral and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, before spending a year as Organ Scholar of Salisbury Cathedral. Timothy graduated from Cambridge University in 2010. As Organ Scholar of St John’s College he accompanied the choir for numerous tours, the famous annual Advent broadcasts and three critically acclaimed CD recordings with Chandos, as well as the daily chapel services. He also acted as Musical Director of the St John’s Singers, the College’s mixed voice choir and won the 2009 Brian Runnett Prize for organ playing. He has also recently been appointed Musical Director of Fernhurst Choral Society, and will take up this position in September 2011.

In Memoriam Diana McNaughton

2011-08-08T14:19:00.000+01:00

We have recently received an anonymous donation to the funds of RSCM Scottish Voices in memory of Diana McNaughton who was always very supportive of church music and its practitioners.

Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. May she rest in peace, and rise in glory.

Missa Brevis

2011-07-28T12:45:00.001+01:00

The first four YouTube videos below feature the beautiful Missa Brevis by Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-1594), which is one of the pieces RSCM Scottish Voices will be rehearsing during our forthcoming residential rehearsal weekend for use in future services. As an extra treat at the end is the lovely Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd (c.1539 - 1623) which is on the music list for the same sevice in which we'll be singing the Palestrina Mass.

The Mass recordings below are by the excellent Tallis Scholars (as appears to be the Byrd), and I would recommend buying the CD from Amazon and the sheet music can be downloaded free from CPDL as a PDF from here

For those who know about such things, you may notice that the Credo is missing, but that's simply because we won't be singing that movement in the Mass.

Kyrie

Gloria

Sanctus & Benedictus

Agnus Dei I & II

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Ave Verum Corpus

Photographs from Aberdeen

2011-06-28T19:16:00.004+01:00

A few photographs from Aberdeen

www.flickr.com/photos/gordonrasmith

Breakfast with Archibald Simpson

2011-06-20T19:10:00.001+01:00

Breakfast in the local Wetherspoons pub, an enjoyable day of rehearsing, leading towards an excellent Choral Evensong followed by an equally excellent fluid-replacement session back in the Wetherspoons made for a delightful day for RSCM Scottish Voices in Aberdeen at the weekend.

We were a little low on numbers, with a couple of sopranos having to boost the alto part, but notwithstanding that it was a good number of the choir who made it to the furthest north we've travelled as yet in the choir's short existence.

The welcome and hospitality shown to us by St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral was second to none, and we'll definitely make a return trip there in the future.

Choral Evensong in Aberdeen

2011-06-17T00:25:00.011+01:00

Choral Evensong will be sung by RSCM Scottish Voices at 4pm tomorrow, Saturday 18th June 2011 in St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral, King Street, Aberdeen. See the poster below for details of the music list.

New page added to our site

2011-06-13T22:33:00.000+01:00

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that we now have a new page on the sidebar on the right hand side listing all our future diary dates and venues with as much detail as is available at any given point, which will be updated on a rolling basis.

So rather than have to scroll down and find the once-per-year post listing a new season's events if you want to find out where you can come to hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing, just look at the "Future Services and Events" page and it'll all be there in date order. If I remember to update it!

RSCM Music Sunday

2011-06-10T13:52:00.053+01:00

RSCM Music Sunday and the end of Glasgow's West End Festival 2011 will be marked on Sunday 26th June when members of RSCM Scottish Voices join with members of St Mary's Cathedral Choir, Glasgow Chamber Choir and Glasgow University Chapel Choir in a spectacular Choral Evensong accompanied by the St Mary's Cathedral Festival Orchestra, all conducted by our Musical Director Frikki Walker.

In addition to orchestral music being played before and after the service, the music to be sung, all in their exciting orchestrated versions, will be:

Responses: Richard Shephard
Psalm 122: I was Glad (Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
Canticles: Sir Charles Villiers Stanford in B flat
Anthem: Blessed city, Heavenly Salem (Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow)
Te Deum: Sir Charles Villiers Stanford in B flat

More details about RSCM Music Sunday can be found on the main RSCM website by clicking here, and the website of St Mary's Cathedral can be found here.

Rehearsal assistance for Aberdeen

2011-05-31T18:42:00.028+01:00

Below are a few videos I've found on YouTube which feature some of the music we'll be doing at Choral Evensong in St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Aberdeen on Saturday 18th June 2011. They may be useful if some choir members haven't sung the pieces before. The quality of the singing is a bit varied (although the magnificent Westminster Abbey Choir does feature), but it gives an idea of the notes!

Ayleward Preces, sung by the Trinity Singers of Westbury on Trym Parish Church, Bristol

Ayleward Responses (which for some unknown reason omits the first two Amens), sung by the Trinity Singers of Westbury on Trym Parish Church, Bristol

Harwood in A flat Nunc Dimittis (I couldn't find the Magnificat) sung by St Andrew's Schola Cantorum of Pittsburgh USA

Stainer - I saw the Lord, sung by Westminster Abbey Choir

I bind unto myself today (tune: St Patrick's Breastplate) sung by the choir of Keble College, Oxford

Fit like?

2011-05-25T19:55:00.054+01:00

After a successful and very enjoyable visit to St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington last Saturday where we sang a devotional sequence for Easter-tide followed by a similarly enjoyable and successful trip 100 yards down the road to the Tyneside Tavern by a big crowd of choir and friends, the next time RSCM Scottish Voices will meet and sing together is on Saturday 18th June 2011 at 4pm when we will be making our first visit to Aberdeen, to St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in King St, to sing Choral Evensong, and we're all VERY much looking forward to it!

The music list has been announced today, and it will consist of:

Introit: God the Holy Trinity (David Halls)
Responses: Richard Ayleward
Psalm 147
Office Hymn: Bright the vision that delighted (tune: Redhead No 46)
Canticles: Basil Harwood in A flat
Anthem: I saw the Lord (Sir John Stainer)
Final Hymn: I bind unto myself today (tune: St Patrick's Breastplate)

St Andrew's Cathedral, which is pretty much in the centre of Aberdeen, is an historic place with special links to the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, and of significance to the whole Anglican communion, and this is clear when you read the following extract from the cathedral's own rather good website:

The congregation here is much older than the present church building. Its roots go back to the time when Episcopalians were forced out of the parish churches of the city after the deposition of James VII (James II of England). Early records are lost, but it is known that the congregation existed in 1716 when Andrew Jaffrey, formerly parish minister of Alford, became minister of this congregation. A number of meeting houses were used before John Skinner built his house in Long Acre in 1776, the upper room of which was used as a chapel.

It was in Aberdeen on 14 November 1784 that Samuel Seabury of Connecticut was consecrated Bishop for America, the first Bishop outside the British isles of what we now call the Anglican Communion. A plaque in the Quadrangle of Marischal College commemorates this notable event.

Seabury's consecration by Bishop Kilgour of Aberdeen, Bishop Petrie of Moray and John Skinner, who was Rector of this congregation and Co-adjutor Bishop of Aberdeen, forced the established Church of England and Parliament to legislate; making it possible for bishops to be created for the Colonies. Had this not happened, the Anglican communion might be very different from what it is today.

RSCM Scottish Voices will be paying its first, but doubtless not its last visit to Aberdeen, and we're proud to be a small part of the ongoing tradition of worship in this fine building. That said, with one former member of the cathedral choir and one current member of the Cathedral Voices choir singing with us, we aren't exactly complete strangers to the city or cathedral, but we're all very much looking forward to being there in a few weeks.

Devotional service of music and readings for Eastertide

2011-05-20T14:08:00.000+01:00

At 4pm in St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington, a Devotional Sequence of Music and Readings for Easter-tide will be performed by RSCM Scottish Voices.

Following the service all are invited to join us for a refreshment at a local pub, probably the Tyneside Tavern just along the road.

Easter Sequence

2011-04-20T20:25:00.000+01:00

The next time you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing is at 4pm on Saturday 21st May 2011 in St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington when we shall be taking part in an Easter Sequence with music including:

Gaudete Omnes – Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
O God thou art my God - Henry Purcell
Surgens Jesus - Peter Philips
Morning Glory, starlit sky - Barry Rose
O Sons and Daughters Let us Sing – Henry Walford Davies
Hymn: This Joyful Eastertide – Charles Wood
Hymn: Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem [tune: St Fulbert]
Psalm: The Easter Anthems

Gotcha! Or did we?

2011-04-02T00:01:00.007+01:00

Yes, you're absolutely right, yesterday's post was an April Fool joke, we admit it. Were you fooled?

It'd be a boring old world without laughter and RSCM Scottish Voices, while a serious (and seriously good) choir, is a group made up of people who are full of laughter and fun while making music, and that's how it should be. Laughter is a wonderful thing, as the words from Genesis 21:6 suggest: ."....... God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."

That said, while clearly we meant no disrespect whatsoever, sincere apologies if anyone saw yesterday's post in anything other than the spirit in which it was meant.

So, we have no sponsorship deal with Tennents or anyone else, but it is true however that we'd be exceedingly pleased to talk about sensible options for such a deal if anyone with a bit of cash to spare or the clout within a company to help us out is reading this. We won't put any logos on choir robes, no matter how good the offer, but other options are available for discussion!

Please contact us via the administrator's email address listed in the sidebar.

New Sponsorship deal for RSCM Scottish Voices

2011-04-01T00:01:00.003+01:00

RSCM Scottish Voices is still a relatively new choir, and as a self funded venture it's sometimes hard to rein back the wonderful plans for the future to match our disposable income. Ideas include our own robes, tours of English Cathedrals, recordings, and lots of other stuff.

We haven't mentioned this previously in case it came to nothing, but over the past few months a lot of hard work and negotiation has been going on behind the scenes by Gordon and me to try to secure sponsorship to help us achieve some of these goals, and I’m pleased to say that only today, the start of April 2011, we’ve finalised a deal with a Glasgow based company who have an international reputation and who are happy to lay out their hard cash simply because we've convinced them that the reputation of RSCM Scottish Voices has become such that their sponsorship money will pay them dividends by getting their name and brand linked to our name and brand which their marketing department are now convinced will unlock a whole new marketplace for them, with the ultimate aim of their leading brand product replacing sweet sherry as the after-service refreshment of choice in refined churches across the land.

Inevitably when a commercial company is willing to provide annually a significant sum of tax free money to be spent by us on whatever we want, then we have to play ball with them to a certain extent, so while the sponsorship deal is in place, and it’s initially for a 3 year period, we will be known as RSCM Tennents Scottish Voices, and a new logo will be used to reflect the harmony between us and their world renowned product.

Below is the new logo, and under that is a mock up of how it is proposed that it will be displayed during the period of the sponsorship deal, when we have the robes which this money will allow us to purchase.

I think you'll agree it's striking, and I welcome any feedback or comments.

Dunblane (short) report

2011-03-09T11:07:00.000Z

The service of Evening Prayer at Dunblane Cathedral on Saturday 5th March went very well, and the whole day, directed by Richard Walmsley and accompanied by Matthew Beetschen, was enjoyable not only musically but socially too, as we went to the Tappit Hen pub across from the Cathedral afterwards.

Our next meeting is on Saturday 21st May in the lovely setting of St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington, just east of Edinburgh, and the service will be at 4pm. Type of service, music lists etc will be posted in due course.

Now, having sung at Dunblane, banked money, updated spreadsheets, reconciled finance, sent out emails relating to found music copies and missing name badges, written articles for the RSCM publication CMQ and the forthcoming RSCM Scotland Newsletter and the magazine Different Voices, completed Event Registration Forms for our August and September meetings, and finally updated this website, I'm ready to not look at ANY RSCM Scottish Voices stuff for a week or two! Except I need to try to get the music list notified for Haddington and I need to start thinking about the arrangements for our residential rehearsal weekend in August, not least who and how many will be there and therefore how much it'll cost each of us. Oh well, I might get a couple of days away from it!

Service at Dunblane Cathedral

2011-03-05T08:01:00.000Z

Today at 4pm you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing Evening Prayer in the wonderful surroundings of Dunblane Cathedral which dates back in parts to the 13th century.

The music will be:

We wait for Thy Loving kindness (William McKie)
Magnificat in e minor (Daniel Purcell)
Praise our Lord, all ye gentiles (William Byrd)
Gaudete Omnes (Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck)

Due to the unavailability of our Musical Director Frikki Walker who is in Sheffield conducting one of his other choirs in the semi final of the Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition, for this service RSCM Scottish Voices will be directed by Richard Walmsley (Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral in Perth) and accompanied on the organ by Matthew Beetschen (Musical Director and Organist of Dunblane Cathedral, and Chair of RSCM Scotland).

Voices united for Christchurch

2011-03-01T18:01:00.001Z

Last night's benefit concert for Christchurch went fantastically well, and raised £4155 which will go via the Red Cross to help those most in need after the earthquake.

Representatives of nine different choirs took part, under the inspirational leadership of Michael Bawtree, Glasgow Chamber Choir, RSCM Scottish Voices, St Mary's Cathedral (Glasgow), St Mary's Cathedral (Edinburgh), Edinburgh Singers, Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, Glasgow University Chapel Choir, Strathclyde University Chamber Choir and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).

A reporter from BBC Radio Scotland was there to record much of what was happening and he interviewed a few people, albeit he got the first name of the Kiwi soloist wrong by calling her Jane Elder instead of Ruth Elder! You can hear a recording of the BBC news article, including some interviews and a bit of the choir singing as well as the two Kiwi soloists by clicking here.

The full programme was:

Choir

Locus Iste - Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

Stephen Chambers (tenor)

Comfort ye my people - George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)
Every valley shall be exalted - George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)

Rachel Hynes (soprano)

The Lord's Prayer - Albert Hay Malotte (1895-1964)

Ruth Elder (soprano)

Pokarekare Ana - Trad. Maori folksong

Rachel Hynes (soprano) and Karen Cargill (mezzo soprano)

Letter Duet from The Marriage of Figaro - W A Mozart (1756-1791)

Stephen Chambers (tenor)

The Choirmaster's Funeral (Thomas Hardy) - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Choir & soloists
Brynne Mcleod (mezzo soprano)
Nick Morris (baritone)
David Sloan (violoncello)
Geoff Woolatt (organ)

Requiem (Op. 9) - Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

Choir and audience, first verse sung in Maori by choir

God defend New Zealand (National Anthem)

Benefit Concert for Christchurch, New Zealand

2011-02-23T17:44:00.004Z

Scottish singers are coming together for a major benefit concert on Monday 28th February 2011 at 8pm for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Brynne McLeod - mezzo soprano
Nick Morris - baritone
David Sloane - cello
Geoff Woollatt - organ
Michael Bawtree - conductor

The concert will take place in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow, which is an almost exact twin of the cathedral which has been damaged in Christchurch. The two buildings were built at the same time to a design by the same architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott.

As well as Requiem by Maurice Duruflé the concert will also feature tenor Stephen Chambers and Soprano Ruth Elder, New Zealanders based in Glasgow. They will perform music by HANDEL, BRITTEN and traditional New Zealand folk songs. Soprano Rachel Hynes will also perform.

Choristers from RSCM Scottish Voices, Glasgow Chamber Choir, Strathclyde University Chamber Choir, the RSAMD, St Mary’s Cathedral Choir (Glasgow), St Mary's Cathedral Choir (Edinburgh), Edinburgh Singers, Glasgow University Chapel Choir, and Edinburgh Royal Choral Union will join together at St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow’s West End. Two New Zealanders currently studying at the RSAMD will also perform at the concert.

Cathedral Provost The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth said: “People in Scotland have all kinds of strong links with people in New Zealand. This concert is an act of solidarity with the people of Christchurch. Christchurch Cathedral is like a 'twin' of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, having been built by the same architect at almost exactly the same time. As we look around the building in Glasgow, our hearts go out to those who are struggling to cope in a damaged city half a world away.”

Organiser Michael Bawtree added: “Scotland has very strong links with New Zealand. Many of us who will perform have friends and family living and working in Christchurch; many have visited, lived, performed and worked in New Zealand; others are simply keen to show that support by giving of their time and talent.”

Stephen Chambers, an RSAMD Opera student from New Zealand who will perform at the concert, said: "My Dad (Dr. John Chambers) was in Christchurch on a Medical conference when the Earthquake hit. He managed to escape unscathed from the fourteenth floor of his hotel, which looked as though it was about to collapse. Like so many Kiwis around the world, I feel helpless. I hope that in putting on this concert we can get some money together to aid those hardest hit in the beautiful country that I call home."

Funds raised at this benefit concert will be passed through official channels to those most in need.

For those who are into such things there is an associated Facebook Event but the important thing is to come along to the concert and donate whatever you can afford.

Please consider supporting this worthy cause, and if you can't make it along to the concert you can give online to the Red Cross New Zealand Earthquake appeal by following this link.

Dunblane music list

2011-02-12T11:23:00.003Z

The next service in which you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing is on Saturday 5th March 2011 at 4pm when we will be taking part in Evening Prayer in the wonderful surroundings of Dunblane Cathedral which dates back in parts to the 13th century.

The music list, hot off the press, is:

We wait for Thy Loving kindness (William McKie)
Magnificat in e minor (Daniel Purcell)
Praise our Lord, all ye gentiles (William Byrd)
Gaudete Omnes (Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck)

Due to the unavailability of our Musical Director Frikki Walker who will be in Sheffield that weekend conducting one of his other choirs in the semi final of the Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition, for this service RSCM Scottish Voices will be directed by Richard Walmsley (Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral in Perth) and accompanied on the organ by Matthew Beetschen (Musical Director and Organist of Dunblane Cathedral, and Chair of RSCM Scotland).

Paisley report

2011-01-24T13:53:00.000Z

On Saturday RSCM Scottish Voices visited Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church in Paisley (TCM) where at their request we sang Choral Evensong and were made to feel very welcome indeed by their organist Matthew Edwards and various members of the church who kindly provided us with tea and biscuits whenever we stopped singing for more than a couple of minutes.

A very heartfelt thanks from all in the choir for the excellent hospitality, and it was good to see between 30-40 people in the congregation on such a cold foggy evening!

The setting of TCM is spectacular, and I commend the Blog post of Pencefn, one of our own choir members, who describes the building and a bit of its history.

Musically it felt good, and according to Frikki Walker, our Musical Director, every time we meet we continue to get a little bit better, so the future still looks bright.

After the service a fairly big crowd of choir and friends managed to squeeze into one of the snugs at the rear of The Bull Inn, the oldest pub in Paisley, where we enjoyed good Real Ale and tasty food, and socialised for several hours.

All in all another good day, and a good start to 2011.

Our next service is on Saturday 5th March 2011 at 4pm in Dunblane Cathedral. Full details of the music will appear here in due course, so watch this space.

Vist to Dunfermline postponed and transferred to Paisley

2011-01-07T18:11:00.000Z

Due to problems caused by the terrible weather in December, Dunfermline Abbey have had fire and flood (literally!) so we've taken the prudent decision to postpone our visit there and reschedule it some time in the (hopefully not too distant) future.

Instead, our next service will be on that day, Saturday 22nd January 2011, at Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church in Paisley, where at 4pm we shall be singing the Choral Evensong we should have sung there last month, except that service was also cancelled because of the poor weather and the church heating breaking down!

The music list for Paisley is:

Introit: Let all mortal flesh keep silence - Sir Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
Responses: John Bertalot (b.1931)
Canticles: Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in B flat - Sir John Stainer (1840-1901)
Anthem: And I saw a new heaven -Edgar Bainton (1880-1956)
Vesper: In Pace - William Blitheman (c1525-1591)

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T00:01:00.001Z

Happy New Year to all involved in RSCM Scottish Voices, whether singers, conductors or organists, 2011 is going to be another great year for us as we continue to develop musically and socially!

Dunfermline Abbey Music List, January 2011

2010-12-05T22:49:00.001Z

Update 7th January 2011: Due to fire and flood at Dunfermline Abbey caused by atrocious weather conditions, this visit to Dunfermline has just been postponed and instead we shall be singing Choral Evensong in Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church in Paisley at 4pm that day.

On Saturday 22nd January 2011 at 4pm RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong at the beautiful and historic Dunfermline Abbey in Fife. The music at this service will be as listed below, and I've also pasted some YouTube videos for your delectation.

Introit: We wait for thy loving kindness – Willam McKie
Responses: Bernard Rose
Canticles: Herbert Sumsion in G
Anthem: Praise Our Lord, all ye gentiles – William Byrd

The Introit, We wait for Thy loving kindness, by William McKie, is below, as sung by the choir of Westminster Abbey

Unfortunately I couldn't find a video with the full Bernard Rose Preces and Responses, but below is the second part (the Responses part).

The anthem, Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles, by William Byrd, is below. I've posted this one previously, and mentioned at the time that it's quite an apt one because it was recorded (albeit not by the Cathedral choir) in the very beautiful Wells Cathedral where our own Musical Director Frikki Walker was a Vicar Choral in the choir for a few years

I couldn't find the Sumsion in G Canticles.

Cancelled Paisley visit

2010-12-01T20:58:00.000Z

Visit to Paisley Cancelled

A combination of concerns of the safety of anyone travelling to Paisley through the foul snowy weather afflicting the whole of the UK right now, uncertainty over who will actually be able to make it to the church on the day, and now the news this evening that the heating for both the church and hall has broken down and there is no guarantee that it'll be fixed by Saturday, has led to me taking the decision to cancel the visit by RSCM Scottish Voices to Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church, where we were due to sing Choral Evensong at 4pm on Saturday 4th December 2010.

We WILL visit the church, it's a fine building and a magnificent organ, but it's now back on the to-do list for the future, so watch this space.

The next time you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing is on Saturday 22nd January 2011 in the beautiful and historic Dunfermline Abbey, where we shall be singing Choral Evensong at 4pm.

The Baptist Cathedral of Europe

2010-11-21T21:40:00.005Z

Update 01/12/2010 - This service has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions and the breakdown of the heating in the church

The next meeting of RSCM Scottish Voices, the last of 2010, will be at 4pm on Saturday 4th December in

Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church

High Street

Paisley

PA1 2BA

As a non-denominational choir, as indeed is the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) a non-denominational Christian organisation, we aim to take part in services relevant to the denomination of the church, cathedral or abbey we're visiting, but on this occasion although it's a Baptist Church we have been asked specifically to sing Choral Evensong, so that's what we're doing, and the music list is:

Introit: Let all mortal flesh keep silence - Sir Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
Responses: John Bertalot (b.1931)
Canticles: Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in B flat - Sir John Stainer (1840-1901)
Anthem: And I saw a new heaven -Edgar Bainton (1880-1956)
Vesper: In Pace - William Blitheman (c1525-1591)
Final Voluntary: Postlude in D minor - Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

As I mentioned in a previous post, Thomas Coats Memorial was built by the prominent local Coats family who were major benefactors in Paisley, and it's unofficially referred to as the Baptist Cathedral of Europe. It's a fine building, with a wonderful organ, and a great acoustic, so to sum up the service:

Big Victorian Church + Big Victorian Music = Fun for all the family!

2011 season is announced

2010-10-24T11:05:00.000+01:00

The 2011 season for RSCM Scottish Voices has now been finalised, and it's going to be a cracking year!

We kick off on Saturday January 22nd with a visit to the historic Dunfermline Abbey. The photo below is by Paul McIlroy

Dunfermline Abbey

On Saturday 5th March we pay a welcome return visit to Dunblane Cathedral. The photo of Dunblane Cathedral is by Kevin Rae.

Dunblane Cathedral

After our last visit in January 2009 which was slightly marred by appalling blizzard conditions causing numerous choristers not to make it, on Saturday 21st May we return to St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington where although we hope to get better weather we couldn't hope for a better welcome than we received last time. The photo of St Mary's Church is by kind permission of RSCM Scottish Voices choir member gordonrasmith.


St Mary's Haddington

Coinciding with a planned weekend of events in the city held by RSCM Scotland, on Saturday 18th June the choir will be visiting Aberdeen for the first time, singing Choral Evensong in St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral at 4pm. The image below is from their own Website.

St Andrews Cathedral, Aberdeen

From Friday 5th to Sunday 7th August our 2011 residential rehearsal weekend will again be in the delightful surroundings of Strathallan School, Forgandenny, Perthshire.

Strathallan School

On Saturday 17th September St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow will be where we sing Choral Evensong at 4pm. The photo of St Mary's Cathedral is by Finlay McWalter.

St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow

To round off the year, on Saturday 5th November the choir will be back in Glasgow, this time in the glorious St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Rose St, where we will be singing in their 5.45pm Mass. This will be the first time RSCM Scottish Voices has taken part in a Roman Catholic service, but it certainly won't be the last. The photo of St Aloysius, which shows the stunning interior, is by Stephen Lipton, who happens to be a singer who has conducted his own group, Scottish Chorale, in St Aloysius a few years ago.

St Aloysius

Individual posts containing the music list and finalised times and directions will be made here nearer each service, and of course the RSCM Scotland site will also have details.

Review of Forfar Choral Evensong

2010-10-04T10:57:00.000+01:00

After our recent Choral Evensong, the following article appeared in the magazine of St John's Episcopal Church, Forfar, and is reproduced here by kind permission:

Music at St. Johns

Royal School of Church Music Scottish Voices - Choral Evensong

We have been extremely privileged this year musically, in that St. Johns has hosted two very special occasions. The first was in April when the Tayside Organists held their President’s evening here, and a magnificent evening that was. Readers may remember that it was described in professional detail by Robert Lightband, who captured the beauty and skill of the performances wonderfully. The second was on September 11th, the Choral Evensong above. This article will inevitably be much less knowledgeable, more broadbrush than his, but hopefully may convey the impression of three quarters of an hour of pure loveliness, an experience shared by about 40 lucky listeners.

As a member of St. Johns, it is a great pleasure to see the chancel packed with singers, all very colourful in their different choir robes, and to hear the very good acoustics of the church used to maximum effect. There was a wonderful purity to the sound, which at times seemed to soar right into the roof space, but was never overpowering. We know we have a very special organ, and it was played beautifully by Rupert Jeffcoat. As a member of St. Johns, also, I felt very proud to welcome the singers here, as the church was looking so good. We know too that we have a lovely building, but when our eyes our being drawn all the time to the chancel, the brilliance of the brass on the cross was breath-taking.

The music was mainly modern, though the versicles and responses were by William Byrd, sixteenth century, and the final voluntary a Prelude and Fugue by Bach, neither of whom could hardly be described as modern! But there was a timelessness about the whole service, an evensong one could simply lose oneself in. The introit was an apparently very simple piece by John Bell, with very direct words; the psalm, a beautiful, slightly haunting chant, so clearly sung, then the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, an adaptation fauxbourdon by John Bertalot, written post Second World War – it had a lovely Gregorian chant effect; and the anthem, the biggest, most complex piece was by John Ireland. They were, of course, all different, but the effect was of seamlessness – the service a complete whole.

Evensong, by its nature, talks of peace and quietness. The day was specially poignant in this respect - September 11th - mentioned in the intercessions by Richard Finch, standing in for Andy. Most pertinent of all, perhaps, was the final Vesper – a truly lovely setting of The Prayer of St. Francis, by Frikki Walker, the musical director. The following day a member of the congregation described the service as ‘though the angels of heaven had come and filled the church with music’. This may be a slightly flowery way of putting of it, but I suspect all of us there were thinking very much the same thing. She just put it into words. Please come again, Scottish Voices, and we’ll try to make sure that next time many more people will come to share this very special experience.

Forfar

2010-09-20T22:23:00.001+01:00

Our most recent meeting was a very successful one at St John's Episcopal Church in Forfar on 11th September. That date resonates round the world in its better known format of 9/11, so music was specially chosen by Frikki to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the events of 2001.

Unfortunately at very short notice Richard Walmsley had to pull out of the service, but luckily we were joined by Revd Rupert Jeffcoat, whose stunning playing left me grinning widely on more than one occasion! I have no doubt that Rupert will be joining us again.

A family commitment, well, committal if the truth be told, meant I couldn't be there for the morning rehearsal so I wasn't able to sing in the service, however this meant that for the first time I was able to hear what RSCM Scottish Voices actually sounds like from a congregational perspective. And not only was I not disappointed, I was very very impressed!

For some time now both Frikki and Richard have been saying how pleased they both are with the way the choir has developed in the fairly short time since we started, and while in response I've been nodding my head and agreeing, secretly I've been thinking "what are they talking about, it's OK but it's not as brilliant as you guys are making out". Well I now realise that they have had the benefit of not being in the midst of all the singers so have been able to hear the overall sound. And they have been right all along! OK, this is the choir site, and I am the choir administrator, so it's forgiveable if I try to talk up our capabilities on this forum. But I don't need to talk them up. RSCM Scottish Voices is actually a very good choir, particularly given the short time it's been in existence, and the paltry 13 times we've met each other to sing together.

Not only that, but the introit actually moved me to tears. It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of John L Bell's musical style, but his anthem There is a place, written to commemorate the victims of the Dunblane massacre of 1996 when gunman Thomas Hamilton murdered sixteen children and a teacher, just hit the spot. OK, again emotionally I was in a strange place, having been scattering the ashes of a close and much loved family member that morning, but the choir sang beautifully and very movingly.

And inevitably, following the service a large crowd of us wandered a short way to the Queens Tavern, where some good beer and food was consumed. As tradition dictates.

All in all, a good day for the choir.

Music for Strathallan

2010-07-30T21:11:00.002+01:00

Below are some rehearsal aids for our forthcoming residential rehearsal weekend at Strathallan School. Some of the following, and much more, will form the basis of our next few events.

I couldn't find clips of Sir John Stainer in B Flat Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, John Bertalot Fauxbourdons, John L Bell's There is a Place, Frikki Walker's Prayer for Peace, or John Madden's We will remember them.

The first video below contains only the first part (I couldn't find the second part) of the Thomas Morley Responses, which can be found about 50 seconds into the clip. Be aware though that they perform the 1662 Prayer Book version in which the priest sings "Glory be to the Father ......." followed by a response from the choir, whereas we'll doubtless be doing the correct version as set by Morley! If none of that makes sense don't worry, all will be obvious on the day.

The video below is of the William Byrd Praise our Lord all ye gentiles, and it's an apt one because it was recorded (albeit not by the Cathedral choir) in the very beautiful Wells Cathedral where our own Musical Director Frikki Walker was a Vicar Choral in the choir for a few years (and you wondered how he got to know so much about singing!). Having sung there a few times with one of Frikki's former choirs The Marian Consort, I can safely say it's one of my favourite cathedrals, and in fact one of my favourite English cities. Great pubs!

Below is Samuel Sebastian Wesley's Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.

John Ireland's Greater Love hath no man than this is below.

Edgar Bainton's And I saw a new heaven, with powerful words from the Book of Revelation, is one of my absolute all time favourite anthems, is very near the top of the exceptionally long list of things I want sung at my funeral, and can be found below.

Also near the top of my funeral list is Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow's atmospheric anthem Let all mortal flesh keep silence, which a very important person in a former life of mine always described as my anthem because whenever she heard it she apparently always remembered me singing the tenor solo in it, and which is below.

Lastly, but by no means leastly, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck's Gaudete Omnes is below.

Enjoy them all!

Cat Herders

2010-07-26T23:00:00.000+01:00

This is what it sometimes feels like to be the administrator, particularly when approaching the residential rehearsal weekend!

A twin history lesson

2010-07-25T15:37:00.000+01:00

RSCM Scottish Voices will be taking part in Choral Evensong to mark the anniversary of 9/11 on, strangely enough, Saturday September 11th 2010 in St John's Episcopal Church in Forfar (top photo) which is the church in which Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later to become the Queen Mother) was confirmed on 5th November 1916. Tha father of a former rector, John Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen, was one of the three Scottish bishops who in 1784 consecrated Samuel Seabury as first bishop of the Episcopal Church of the then brand new United States of America. History? We've got it!

Our final meeting in 2010 will be in the lovely Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church in Paisley (photo on right) on Saturday 4th December. The church, linked to the prominent threadmaking Coats family who were major benefactors in 19th century Paisley, is unofficially known as "The Baptist Cathedral of Europe" and although normally the type of service in which we take part is relevant to the denomination of the church in which we are singing, on this occasion we have been asked to sing Choral Evensong, and it's been suggested that this might be the first time in the UK such a service has been held in a Baptist church!

Full details, and of course individual posts relating to each, will follow in due course.

Richard's wedding music

2010-07-10T12:56:00.000+01:00

Richard's wedding is fast approaching, and some videos to aid note-bashing are below:

Videos relating to the Stanford Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem, and Britten Jubilate Deo in C, have already been posted here relating to our recent Dundee visit. The Patrick Hadley My Beloved Spake is below.

Church Music Quarterly

2010-06-28T22:01:00.003+01:00

I was asked recently to contribute an article on RSCM Scottish Voices to the fine RSCM publication Church Music Quarterly.

Not having any guidance as to the length of article expected, my first draft was something like 750 words long, but that's now been negotiated down to 250-300 words although it may be edited further!

The next edition is due in September, so I guess if it gets published it'll be in that one, and if so I'll be sure to post details here!

City of Discovery and wine

2010-06-25T21:59:00.002+01:00

Another good day was had by all.

Last weekend saw RSCM Scottish Voices sing Choral Evensong in St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Dundee, and leaving aside the visits to two churches and a cathedral where some of our own members sing, this had to be the warmest welcome yet, and it was certainly the biggest congregation!

And not only that, one of the cathedral choir expressed an interest in joining us, so had an audition pretty much there and then, so welcome to the choir Paul!

The enthusiasm with which my initial approach to the Cathedral's Pastoral Musician, Stuart Muir, was met last year, was matched by the generous welcome we received from all at Dundee, from the tea, coffee and cakes we were fed on arrival, to the wine, sandwiches, wine, snacks and wine to which we were treated at the end of the service. Thanks folks, it was appreciated by all the choir, and was very much talked about in the pub afterwards!

The pub we went to was DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts) a few minutes walk from the Cathedral, which was bright, airy, comfortable, and served alcohol, so it was a winner. The crowd who went there wasn't quite as big as normally go out to play after our services, and we didn't stay as long as normal, but that can be attributed to the generous amount of wine provided by the cathedral after the service, negating the need for more booze, and also the fact that a few of the regular pub attendees were missing from the day for perfectly valid reasons ranging from the writing of the final bit of a Thesis, being in Orkney working at the St Magnus Festival, the work-related requirement to speak to Housing Association Tenants about central heating at an Open Day, and probably the best excuse being the impending delivery of Nic and Carson's first child (which is actually due today but at the time of writing this appears not to have happened yet [although I'm currently relying on Facebook updates for my info] - an announcement will doubtless follow in due course!).

Two of us were staying in Dundee overnight, so we went for a good look round the city the next day, finding a pub in which to watch the Italy v New Zealand football game in the afternoon. The one-all draw against the current World Cup Holders was as good as winning the World Cup itself for New Zealand, much to Ruth's delight!

Dundee is a really nice arty city, with lots of little statues and artworks dotted about the streets, and it's well worth a visit. Patrticularly good was the Discovery Exhibition, which was exceptionally well presented. Go there, next time you get a chance.

Dundee

2010-06-16T19:55:00.000+01:00

St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Dundee this coming Saturday is the next occasion when you can hear RSCM Scottish Voices sing.

The service of Choral Evensong starts at 4pm, lasts probably a bit less than an hour, and the music we will be singing is:

Introit: Jubilate Deo in C (Benjamin Britten)
Responses: William Smith of Durham
Canticles: Daniel Purcell in e minor
Anthem: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (Sir Charles Villiers Stanford)

The Cathedral can be found at 1 High St, Dundee DD1 1TD.

The service should be good, so why not come along and hear us.

What can RSCM Scotland offer?

2010-05-28T01:30:00.003+01:00

The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) is largely an educational charity. As part of the educational aspect of its work, RSCM Scotland can do various things for affiliated churches and members, and in the Spring 2010 RSCM Scotland Newsletter Matthew Beetschen wrote the following:

What can RSCM Scotland do for You? Future events in YOUR AREA?

We need your help please! We’d like to plan events for the next couple of years but need help getting things organised within local areas. We want to be able to run events around the country and are after local input both in finding venues and in organising the right event for the locality.

Here is a list of events that have proved successful and which could be run more or less anywhere:

Meet, Eat and Sing - usually an evening event. We start with informal singing of varied, enjoyable repertoire and follow with a light supper. A chance to meet with other local RSCM members and enjoy music, food and fellowship.

A “Big Sing” - an event where small choirs and other participants come together to sing music that would otherwise be too large-scale. Music can be rehearsed during the afternoon which would end with either a “sing-through” or short Act of Worship.

Voice for Life workshops - an Introduction to the RSCM Voice for Life scheme or training sessions for those already enrolled. An afternoon could cover various sessions in voice production, sight-singing, music reading and “choir in context” or focus specifically on one area. This event could be run for adults or children.

Awards Training Day - helpful hints on preparing for Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards, giving potential candidates and those who train them a guide to the exam syllabus and an understanding of the standards expected, including seeing a “mock” exam take place. This event could be run for adults or children.

Skills Training Day - help and advice for Organists, Choir Directors, Music Leaders. Sessions could be offered in choir training, service accompaniment, improvisation etc. and we hope to be able to launch the new “Cantor” module from the RSCM Skills Programme. We are especially keen to run workshops in setting up and running Children’s Choirs.

Plainsong Workshop and Sung Compline - a late afternoon workshop culminating in the singing of the traditional service of Compline. As the service is all unaccompanied it could literally take place anywhere! This workshop is suitable for everyone, particularly those who have little ability in reading music.

Singing the Psalms workshop - explore different ways to sing the psalms in worship. From anglican chant to responsorial, plainsong to metrical settings. The workshop can be tailored to meet local needs if required and could also end with an informal act of worship.

Exploring Music, Ministry and Worship - wide-ranging and (usually!) lively discussion of all matters relating to music and worship. For clergy, musicians and worship leaders of churches of all denominations and all who are interested in using music in worship.

Please let us know if you can help us arrange an event near you or if there is something else you would like us to do! Contact Pat in the first instance – pat@rscmscotland.org

RSCM Scotland events

2010-05-13T17:07:00.001+01:00

There are a few RSCM events coming up which may be of interest not only to RSCM Scottish Voices members, but wider afield too. I've slightly altered the contact email addresses for each event to try to avoid them being plagued by Spam, but I'm sure everyone who reads this Blog is intelligent enough to work out the correct addresses!

I'm grateful to the RSCM Scotland committee for permission to use some of the content of their March 2010 Newsletter as a base for much of the following:

On Trinity Sunday 30th May Compline by Candlelight will be led by RSCM Scottish Voices member Pat Lynch in St Peter's Church, Lutton Place, Edinburgh. Singers should meet at 1745hrs, and the service itself is at 1830hrs, followed by refreshments. If you haven't come across the service of Compline before now, then I'd recommend it to you, it's very relaxing and therapeutic and features beautiful music. A Candlelight Compline for Candlemas was held previously at St Peter's Church, also directed by Pat, and took the format of a short workshop at which the music was learned before everyone moved into the church for the service. The singers were joined in the chancel by a congregation of about 15. St Peter’s Rector, the Rev Canon Fred Tomlinson who led the service said he enjoyed the very prayerful time and issued an invitation to come again on Trinity Sunday to help St Peter’s celebrate its anniversary. Contact sheila AT rscmscotland DOT org for details.

On Wednesday 9th June Alistair Warwick and Jamie Brand will lead a Meet Eat and Sing at 1900hrs at St John's Church in Dumfries. This new initiative for RSCM Scotland was launched at Holy Trinity Church, Melrose at the beginning of March, and of that event Ann Treloar wrote: “Singers and their friends from the Borders and as far away as Oban, met in Melrose for the first event of this kind to be held in Scotland. Matthew Beetschen directed a very successful evening with an interesting selection of music, which was accompanied by Sheila Robertson on the organ and piano. This was followed by an excellent supper and some animated discussion. Grateful thanks were expressed to the Director and to the congregation at Holy Trinity for their splendid hospitality." So please come along to the second Meet, Eat and Sing and enjoy a musical feast! Contact Jamie at brandjr AT alb DOT dumgal DOT org DOT uk to ensure there is enough music and food available!

Saturday 19th June of course is RSCM Scottish Voices' next service of Choral Evensong which will be at St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Dundee at 4pm. Keep looking at this Blog for further info!

From Monday 19th to Thursday 22nd July the Dunblane Singing Break will be held. Now in its thirteenth year, the Dunblane Singing Break, based at Scottish Churches House, is a very popular course for choral singers and church musicians from many different places, including a good number from outside the UK, who come together for four days of rehearsal in preparation for singing and spiritual refreshment. Once again Gordon Appleton is the Director of the course together with Matthew Beetschen, the organist of the cathedral who accompanies services on the magnificent Flentrop organ. This year`s course, for which no auditions are required, starts at lunch time on Monday 19 July and ends after a closing service on Thursday 22 July. Places are still available, so contact Brian Baker at dunblanesingingbreak AT rscmscotland DOT org for details of cost and to book.

On Saturday 18th September the Music Director of RSCM Scottish Voices, Frikki Walker, will direct a Young Voices Festival at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow to which all young choristers are welcome. Frikki is an inspiring musician and is particularly good with youngsters. Contact matthew AT rscmscotland DOT org for further details.

Finally, Saturday 30th October sees Gordon Appleton direct a Dunblane Singing Day. All singers are welcome and it costs a donation to RSCM Scotland. Contact matthew AT rscmscotland DOT org for details.

St Paul's Cathedral

2010-05-02T01:54:00.002+01:00

In about seven weeks from now, on Saturday 19th June at 4pm, RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong in St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, 1 High Street, Dundee DD1 1TD.

The music list is:

Introit: Jubilate Deo in C (Benjamin Britten)
Responses: William Smith of Durham
Canticles: Daniel Purcell in e minor
Anthem: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (Charles Villiers Stanford)

For choir note-learning purposes I've found a couple of performances on YouTube.

The first video below is of the choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor performing the Britten Jubilate (which was written for them at the request of the Duke of Edinburgh in 1961). It appears to be a bit of an advert for the choir school, but if you want to skip the speaky bits, fast forward to about 2min 9sec and the music starts soon after that. And bloody good they are too, unsurprisingly.

The second video is Stanford's Ye choirs of new Jerusalem, sung by the choir of New College, Oxford.

The Smith Responses and Purcell Canticles have been sung before by us.

A new Domain

2010-05-02T00:57:00.000+01:00

The Domain name www.rscmscottishvoices.org.uk as of yesterday points to this here Blog but at some point in the future it may well lead to our own site (if I get my act together and publish it from my laptop where it's been sitting for a while!).

A new set of email addresses relating to various aspects of the choir are also now just about past the planning stage and are likely to be put into operation soon, but in part they require choir members to check their Spam filters to ensure the new addresses work properly. I'll email everyone soon to arrange this.

So watch this space, and maybe you might want to bookmark the new address.

Holy Trinity Kilmarnock

2010-04-18T10:32:00.000+01:00

Another meeting, another stride forward!

Unfortunately at the last minute our exceptionally talented Musical Director, Frikki Walker, wasn't able to rearrange his regular Saturday morning teaching commitments at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) so wasn't able to join us exactly as planned, however fortunately our exceptionally talented Organist, Richard Walmsley, stepped into the breach and took over, so the two of them effectively swapped roles for the day with Frikki arriving early afternoon to play the organ for the last bit of the rehearsals and the service itself!

And what a time we had. It's always refreshing to be conducted by someone else occasionally, and it was a pleasure to be waved at by Richard. I personally thought that the choir has again taken a good step forward in standard, and the feedback I've had from both Richard and Frikki was very positive.

On another personal note it was nice to sing a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis I'd never seen before, although Healey Willan sounds like he should be a sports car not a composer!

The photo is by gordonrasmith. Well kind of, since he's actually in it and it was taken by a member of the congregation so that Gordon could be in one for a change!

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in the centre of Kilmarnock is an amazing wee building, with wonderful murals, and the welcome we all got was excellent. Thanks again to our own Pat, Carole and Kat for all that.

And so to the important bit - the pub! At lunchtime, recommended by Kat and Carole, a crowd went to First Edition nearby, and were impressed enough by it to head there after the service too. A nice big crowd of choristers, probably around twenty or so of us, managed largely to get round one table, and had a very nice time replacing lost fluid and having a laugh and a joke.

We also bounced around some ideas for the future, including the choir having our own robes instead of each wearing the robes of our "home" choir, the acquisition of music folders, the choir having its own library of music, and not least - sponsorship. Possible sponsors were trotted out, like Guinness, Taylor's (RSCM Late Bottled Vintage Scottish Voices?), Tennants (because their logo is almost cruciform!) and Coors (simply because that was what some of us were drinking!), and whilst it was a jokey interlude with quite a lot of laughs, if we are going to seriously consider such things as buying robes and folders (and I think we should think about such things) then we need to think about how we are going to pay for them, and get some discussion going.

RSCM Scottish Voices as an entity has a lot to offer the right sponsor in terms of market penetration and visibility, as there must be loads of brands whose target audience is the demographic of church-goers. Pimms, Gordons, Interflora, Co-Op Funeral Service etc etc. OK that last one was a joke, but you get my drift!

Another exciting idea bounced around by Richard, apart from of course him inviting the choir to sing at his wedding in July which is fantastic and which will doubtless be the subject of future posts and many emails from me, was the possibility of going on a week's tour of cathedrals, minsters, abbeys and churches in England, probably as an alternative to a residential rehearsal weekend, and the Yorkshire area was mooted by him as an option. This would require some serious organisation and would require commitment from enough choristers to make up an effective choir if it were to be considered. I'd very much welcome feedback on what the choir's thoughts are on that one.

The last four of us left the pub around ten to eight, and I staggered up the road to (just) catch the 8pm train back to Glasgow, with thoughts of money, sponsors, robes, tours, weddings and music libraries revolving round my head until I arrived back home just before 10pm, having set off on the five to eight train that morning. Quite a long day, but a very rewarding one, and this morning having now reconciled the money, written up the accounts, filled out the bank pay-in slip and emailed the details to the RSCM Scotland Treasurer, completed the attendance spreadsheet, replied to a couple of emails from people who were apologising for not being there, replied to an email from a chorister who is now bowing out of the choir, and posted this entry, I'm not going to do anything relating to RSCM Scottish Voices for the rest of the weekend! Except I'm going to have a chat with Frikki tonight after Evensong about stuff

Who'd be an administrator is a question which often enters my head I have to confess, but after a day like yesterday a resounding "me!" is the answer I usually come up with, and it's a heartfelt thanks I send to all members of RSCM Scottish Voices for making it ultimately so enjoyable, musically and socially.

Kilmarnock music list

2010-04-14T18:30:00.001+01:00

The next meeting of RSCM Scottish Voices will be this coming Saturday, 17th April 2010, at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 1 Dundonald Road, Kilmarnock KA1 1EQ and Choral Evensong will take place at 4pm, lasting around an hour.

The music list, hot off the press this afternoon, is:

Introit: This Joyful Eastertide (Anon - arranged Wood)
Responses: William Smith of Durham
Psalm: 89 vv1-19
Canticles: Healey Willan in E flat
Anthem: Sing Joyfully (William Byrd)

I've found the following on YouTube, which may be of some use for giving the choir an idea of what some of the music sounds like, as a rehearsal aid. You have to go to 4minutes 8seconds on the Westminster Abbey one to get to the Smith, and it's only the first part (the Preces) they sing. Part of the second bit (the Responses) is on the next video down, and I couldn't find the rest of it!

Oh, and just for Ruth, Sing Joyfully is performed by a New Zealand choir!

FAQs

2010-04-06T19:49:00.000+01:00

I've recently had a few emails from choir members worried that they've missed an email from me giving details of the next meeting of RSCM Scottish Voices on Saturday 17th April at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Kilmarnock.

Just to set your minds at rest, the answers to the FAQs are:

Yes I know it's now less than two weeks away
No, the music list has not yet been finalised, it's being worked on at the moment
Yes, I know it is now too late for everyone to source their own copies and if music is chosen that you don't already have, then it will be provided to you on the day

That's about it for the moment!

I know that's a bit jokey, but in all seriousness, the lead up to Lent and then Easter is a frenetic time for choirmasters, and it's only today that there's been a window of opportunity to have the music list worked on by Frikki who is an expert in that field (amongst others) and always takes time to painstakingly and carefully make sure the service hangs together well and the chosen music fits with each other and with the theme of the liturgical season.

I have an email all typed up and ready to go out containing the details of where and when, and the main thing I'm waiting on is the music list so I can include it all in one go. The timings on the day are exactly as normal, and it's in the centre of Kilmarnock. More will follow by email.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Wordle

2010-02-22T18:51:00.001Z

Over at the Blog of the Provost of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, he has just posted a Wordle.

Wordle describes itself as a toy for generating word clouds based on text input to it and where the result shows words listed in different sizes depending on how often they're used.

Below is the Wordle I just generated from the RSS feed for this Blog, and it's nice to see that Music is central to the theme!

RSCM Scottish Voices Evensong in St Mary's Glasgow

2010-02-21T18:14:00.003Z

What a great day! The music for Evensong was clearly something special when I was learning it at home, but put all together for the service created a wonderful atmosphere.Truly a "proper" Lenten occasion. Thanks everyone for contributing to this occasion and especially Frikki, Richard and Gary without whom we would not be enjoying these experiences.

Choral Evensong today - roll up roll up!

2010-02-20T08:23:00.001Z

RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong today at 4pm in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow.

The music list is:

Introit: Salvator Mundi - John Blow (1649-1708)
Responses: Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in e minor - Daniel Purcell (1664-1717)
Anthem: Lord, let me know mine end - Maurice Greene (1696-1755)

Why not come along and take an hour out your busy day to find a place of peace and tranquility amidst glorious music.

Backlog no more

2010-02-17T16:38:00.000Z

In my previous post I mentioned the backlog of music from the RSCM Online store.

Yesterday when I arrived home from work there was a nice A4 envelope waiting for me, containing the last piece for which I was waiting, Salvator Mundi, by John Blow.

So hopefully everyone should have all their own copies in time for Saturday at St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow.

Happy Birthday

2010-02-11T00:01:00.005Z

Happy birthday to the choir's own Patsy.

I also happen to know that another soprano is celebrating a birthday round about the date of our next meeting in Glasgow, so we should celebrate both after the service!

Music backlog

2010-02-10T21:04:00.000Z

The music for our next meeting, which is on Saturday 20th February at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, is all available from the RSCM Online Store, but there was some of it out of stock when I ordered mine on 18th January.

Today I received a reply to my email which had asked them when the due date was, and the reply said:

"The copies of the Blow are due this week so should be with you, and the numerous people awaiting copies, early next week all being well"

So they should be arriving with you from Monday 15th February.

That was the only one out of stock when I placed my order, so that was the only one I queried but I suppose some of the other stuff which I didn't need to order might not have been available, but I didn't ask about that. In any case, they say that out of stock items usually take around a fortnight to arrive, so there shouldn't be any problem for any of it.

Blow and Greene rehearsal aids

2010-02-02T16:32:00.001Z

Thanks to Patsy for pointing us in the direction of YouTube to find rehearsal aids for our next meeting in St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow in about 3 weeks!

Below you will find the videos she mentioned in her comment. The Blow in particular is handy as the images are of the sheet music!

Just click on the big triangle in the middle of each frame below to play the video.

Different Voices

2010-01-28T17:14:00.000Z

I was recently contacted by the editor of Different Voices which is a relatively new quarterly magazine, published by the Church of Scotland, about church music in Scotland.

Their website describes it as a magazine for those who:

sing in choirs, congregations and praise groups
play organs or other instruments
plan and lead the music of the local church in whatever capacity
write and choose music, songs and hymns for worship, including ministers and clergy
and all who have a general interest in how the Church worships, what it sings and has sung through all generations.

Published three times a year it costs £12.00 for three issues. Yes, I too can work out what quarterly means!

Now since the article on their Website features a photo of someone playing a guitar, and this isn't really the type of music that RSCM Scottish Voices is into (he said, rather restrainedly!) I didn't have high hopes that the magazine would be any good, or rather would be of any interest to me. But Lo and Behold, when the complimentary copy arrived and I had a look through, it's not only very professionally put together there are some interesting articles in it. I stand corrected then, and at only £12 a year I'd say it was well worth considering subscribing to it.

Choir members reading this - the complimentary copy (which is for the choir, not for me personally) will be with me on Saturday 20th February in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, our next meeting, so as I said in my email to you all regarding it, have a look at it and decide whether it's something in which you might be interested. If I forget to mention it (I usually have other things on my mind!) then ask me, because it's already there in my music pigeonhole in the choir room.

Glasgow, February 2010

2010-01-26T17:08:00.002Z

The next event for RSCM Scottish Voices is a full Choral Evensong on the first Saturday in Lent, which is 20th February 2010, in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow at 4pm.

The music list is:

Introit: Salvator Mundi - John Blow (1649-1708)
Responses: Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in e minor - Daniel Purcell (1664-1717)
Anthem: Lord, let me know mine end - Maurice Greene (1696-1755)

Afterwards we shall retire to the nearby Lansdowne Bar for an after-service fluid replacement session!

It should be a very good service, not only because the choir continues to improve and gel together, but also because it's Lent, the season leading up to Easter, and the penitential music relevant to that season of the church always tends to be rather lovely in my humble opinion.

The choir still has a few vacancies for singers, so if you are aged 18 or over, live in Scotland, have experience in church choral singing, and would like to be considered for an audition or would like more information, please contact the choir administrator at scottishvoices@rscmscotland.org for an application form.

Holders of RSCM Bronze, Silver or Gold awards need not audition, but should contact the administrator for further details.

Haddington report

2010-01-17T12:51:00.001Z

The choir continues to develop and grow in corporate ability, as yesterday's service in Haddington showed.

There were a lot of call offs, partly due to the weather and partly for other reasons, so a smaller choir than usual, consisting of nine sopranos, three altos, four tenors, and six basses, turned up at the incredibly beautiful and historic St Mary's Parish Church at 10am to be fed tea, coffee and biscuits by the the very friendly ladies of the parish. We then walked a few hundred yards to the Trinity Centre, the church hall of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, where we rehearsed in the morning to allow our organist to rehearse on the splendid looking organ in St Mary's church. As it happened, we didn't need to decamp, because our regular organist Richard Walmsley couldn't make it so at very short notice Matthew Beetschen, organist of Dunblane Cathedral and chair of the RSCM Scotland committee, stepped ably into the breach but he didn't arrive until lunchtime so we could have rehearsed in the church after all. Not to worry.

The music was very slightly different to that advertised in my previous post, and consisted of:

Hymn: O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (tune: Was Lebet)
Anthem: O magnum mysterium (Tomas Luis da Victoria)
Hymn: How brightly beams the morning star (tune: Wie Schön Leuchtet, harmony by J S Bach)
Anthem: In a byre near Bethlehem (Irish trad, arranged by John L Bell and Frikki Walker)
Anthem: Bethlehem Down (Peter Warlock)
Hymn: New light has dawned (I think the tune was by Peter Barnard, but apologies if that's wrong!)
Anthem: Lo! Star led chiefs (William Crotch)
Hymn: Of the Father's love begotten (tune: Divinum Mysterium)

Of all of the above, personally my highlight was the Victoria anthem which is very atmospheric and very beautiful. The lowlight? Well, for me the jury's still out on the New light has dawned hymn which I didn't quite get to grips with and I suspect I wasn't the only one. It went well enough, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. Still, if everything was perfect it'd be a boring world I guess!

A nice surprise for me was the William Crotch anthem, because it was one I've never heard before, and it's a wee gem. Lots of fun to sing.

RSCM Scottish Voices is still a new choir, and we've only met some half dozen times so far. For the first wee while the focus was just on a rehearsal day with a small service tacked on at the end, almost as an afterthought, but that's the nature of starting up such a choir consisting of people who don't already know each other and who don't meet to rehearse on a weekly basis. The first services weren't advertised in any way and so were put on pretty much just for ourselves to round off the day of rehearsing, and the first actual congregation I think we had was a single person at the service at the end of our residential weekend in Musselburgh last year. We had a small handful at St Ninian's Cathedral in Perth last September, and a similar sized group at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh in November. Yesterday though we had over 20 in the congregation which, while clearly is a small number of people in the grand scheme of things, was the biggest number to whom we've sung so far. Numbers aren't the target of course, but it was nice to see them.

Performance wise, our Musical Director Frikki Walker was pleased with the way it went and how we sounded. We continue to develop and progress, and things are still looking good for the future.

So that's all very well, but what about afterwards?

About 100 yards along from the front gate of the church is a pub called the Tyneside Tavern, sitting next to an old mill on the river Tyne. I'd already identified it from the CAMRA Good Beer Guide as a good place to go, and we weren't disappointed. A good turn out of choir members, maybe 20 people, and the beer and craic were good as was the food a few of us had a bit later. With very friendly staff, and the lounge bar pretty much to ourselves, I could have stayed there all night, but sadly had to travel back west to home!

Haddington 2010

2010-01-08T21:32:00.001Z

The next meeting of RSCM Scottish Voices will be a service in St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington, East Lothian at 4pm on Saturday 16th January 2010. That's a week tomorrow.

Music will include:

Bethlehem Down (Warlock); O Magnum Mysterium (Victoria); Lo star-led chiefs (Crotch); The Coventry Carol (trad arr Willcocks); There is a star (trad Spiritual); How brightly beams the morning star (Bach).

As ever we will be conducted by Frikki Walker, and accompanied by Richard Walmsley.

It'd be great to see a nice big congregation in this lovely historic church, which is in Sidegate, Haddington EH41 4BZ.

On their Website, they describe how to find the church as:

The market town of Haddington is 20 miles East of Edinburgh along the A1 dual carriageway. Travelling East take the second exit to Haddington - St Mary's is signposted from the main road. Look to the South, and you will see the old church tower in the distance.

The choir still has some vacancies for singers, so if you are aged 18 or over, are resident in Scotland, have experience in church choral singing, and would like to be considered for an audition or would like more information, please contact the choir administrator at scottishvoices@rscmscotland.org for an application form.

Holders of RSCM Bronze, Silver or Gold awards need not audition, but should contact the administrator for further details.

Wrong date advertised

2010-01-04T17:21:00.000Z

I've been advised that some information in the RSCM publication The Network is wrong. I haven't seen it myself but apparently it states that RSCM Scottish Voices will next meet on 6th January, when in fact it is Saturday 16th January which is the correct date. For the avoidance of doubt we always meet on Saturdays.

Apologies if this error has mislead anyone, but the information passed to the editor of The Network was correct.

The service, which is open to all to attend, will take place at 4pm, and the church is in the middle of Haddington.

Happy Christmas

2009-12-25T00:01:00.004Z

Happy Christmas to all members of RSCM Scottish Voices, and to all our friends and family.

This is always a busy time for church musicians, and I trust that all the hard work in rehearsals and carol services has paid off and you can soon enjoy a bit of a break.

For members of the choir, it's now only a few weeks to our next meeting at Haddington, the first service of 2010 and the next step in our development, and it looks set to be a good year for us.

Edinburgh, November 2009

2009-12-01T21:06:00.000Z

Although the photo, taken by gordonrasmith, is from our summer residential weekend back in August, our most recent service took place last Saturday, 28th November, at 4pm in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, when we sang Choral Evensong.

The music list was:

Introit: Hear my Prayer - Henry Purcell
Responses: John Sanders
Psalms: 137 & 138
Canticles: Hugh Blair in b minor
Anthem: Hail Gladdening Light - Charles Wood
Hymn: Ye Holy Angels Bright (NEH 475), Tune: Darwall's 148th (James Darwall), Descant by Frikki Walker.

RSCM Scottish Voices is a choir made up of choristers from a variety of church choirs around Scotland, and we only meet on the day of a service, with no rehearsals in between apart from a residential rehearsal weekend once a year in the summer. So that means we need to work pretty hard on the day of a service to not only polish or indeed sometimes learn the music, but also to get used again to singing with each other. That might sound odd to non-choristers but anyone who's ever joined an ad-hoc choir will understand it.

So at 10am on a freezing cold Saturday morning we all met outside the rather beautifully decorated Song School, with its murals by Phoebe Traquair, before the choir administrator found the vergers' office and got us access to the building.

A couple of hours of rehearsal, including in the Cathedral itself, and we broke for lunch for an hour or so, and then reassembled for more rehearsal. I believe various lunch options were tried, ranging from home made sandwiches, through Greggs the bakers, to local pubs!

There was a concert later that evening in the Cathedral, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, and we had to fit in with the rehearsal times for that so we had limited time in the Cathedral immediately before Evensong, but Frikki Walker, our exceptionally talented Musical Director, managed to top and tail everything that was needed. Our organist is Richard Walmsley but he was engaged in a rehearsal for the following day's live BBC Radio 4 broadcast of Sunday Worship from his home church, St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral in Perth, so at fairly short notice we were joined and very ably accompanied by Geoff Bolton, a work colleague of Richard's.

Two of the clergy of the cathedral joined us for Evensong, and made us feel very welcome, as indeed had the verger earlier in the day. The service went pretty well and the one or two slightly scary moments from the rehearsals seemed to pass uneventfully!

And so the official part of the day was over.

Many of us had travelled by public transport, and so we moved onto the next bit of the day, the all important after service fluid replacement session!

One of our choristers lives in Edinburgh (and sings in the choir of the rather lovely Old St Paul's Episcopal Church) and she recommended a local hotel, the Edinburgh Thistle Hotel in nearby Manor Place, on the basis that since Scotland had been playing Argentina at Rugby at nearby Murrayfield Stadium then most of the local pubs would be very busy but the hotel might be a bit quieter.

She was right to recommend it.

Good beer, a good atmosphere, and the Wales v Australia Rugby game on a big screen, watched by a decent sized and very good natured crowd consisting largely of, I was repeatedly told by more than one of our sopranos and altos, very good looking men!

Inevitably not all choir members will make it to the socialising afterwards, although all are invited, but out of the roughly 30 choristers who had sung Evensong there must have been almost 20 in the bar afterwards, albeit split into three groups because of the available seating.

A few beers, wines, port & brandies, and gin & tonics later, not to mention the baguettes filled with sausage consumed towards the end of the evening, and the last 4 of us of us left the hotel heading for the 9pm train from Haymarket to Glasgow, which we caught with perfect timing, despite some rather unsteady walking! A portion or two of the best that Burger King had to offer at Glasgow Central Station, where we'd all walked to continue the last legs of our journeys home after arriving at Queen Street from Edinburgh and we went our separate ways.

A long day, but a fine day of music making and. most importantly, friendship.

RSCM Scottish Voices as a choir is in its very early days, and still has much of its musical potential to fulfil, but fulfil it we will with a great deal of determination by its members, and an enormous amount of skill, enthusiasm, fun and professionalism by our Music Director Frikki Walker, assisted by our fine organist Richard Walmsley. But there's more to a choir than just music, vitally important as that is, and in the brief year since we were founded, and having met each other less than ten times, we have already bonded together and many good friendships have been forged, and that makes a firm foundation for some excellent music making.

If you are over 18, live in Scotland, have choral experience, and are looking for a choir that meets around half a dozen times a year for a day each time to sing in a variety of churches and cathedrals around Scotland (with the associated socialising of course), then you could do a lot worse than to audition for RSCM Scottish Voices. Contact the administrator if you want more details or want to arrange an audition.

Go on, you won't regret it.

Welcome to our new Blog

2009-11-30T21:22:00.001Z

Welcome to the new Blog of RSCM Scottish Voices, a choir which is part of the Royal School of Church Music and is made up of experienced church choral singers from around Scotland.

The Blog will be used partly as a vehicle for communication within the choir, and partly as a means of publicising what's happening in our world. That's the initial plan anyway, but things will inevitably change and develop as the fledgling choir grows to fulfil its potential.