Choral Directing Workshop

RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing in the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling at 4pm on Saturday 17th March, and one week later the Royal College of Organists will be putting on a Choral Directing workshop with Duncan Ferguson, Organist and Master of the Music at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, culminating in Choral Evensong conducted by the participants. Places are still available.

The workshop will take place from 11am on Saturday 24th March in St Mary's Cathedral , Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, booking forms are available to download from their website, and their own publicity states:

The diverse musical elements of choral evensong provide the repertoire for this very special workshop for choral directors of all levels of experience. A professional chamber choir, to be conducted by volunteers, will be present in the afternoon and for the closing service of choral evensong in St Mary’s Cathedral. Attend as an active participant or as an observer. Tuition from
Duncan Ferguson, acclaimed director of St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, with Nicholas Wearne, organ.

Schedule
10:30 Registration

11:00 Introducing the music for evensong and including

• The importance of warm-ups
• Score preparation
• Rehearsal techniques
• Gesture

13:00 Lunch (not provided—there are many places nearby to find sustenance)

14:00 Rehearsal of music for choral evensong with volunteer conductors and professional choir.
The music has been chosen to allow opportunities for the less experienced as well as seasoned practitioners to participate. The level of difficulty of each piece is shown in the repertoire list below on a scale of A – E where ‘A’ is the least challenging. Conductors for the different pieces for the service of choral evensong will be chosen from amongst those who conduct in this session. Please indicate as directed on the booking form if you wish to be considered.

16:30 Break

17:00 Choral Evensong (ending c. 17:50)

Repertoire for Choral Evensong
Introit: If ye love me, Tallis (SATB version in F major) (B)
Responses: Leighton (E)
Psalm 119 vv 1-16 (chant and pointing will be available in advance) (C/D)
Magnificat: Stanford in B flat (C)
Nunc Dimittis: Stanford in B flat (A)
Anthem: Wash me throughly, SS Wesley (C/D)

From Palestrina to Rutter

On Saturday 17th March, RSCM Scottish Voices will depart slightly from the norm, and instead of taking part in a service our worship will take the form of a religious recital in the Church of the Holy Rude, St John Street, Stirling at 4pm.  This is an historic church close to the even more historic Stirling Castle.

Lasting no longer than a service would (i.e. around an hour) there is no charge for admission, although there may be a retiring collection for the church.

We will be directed as usual by Frikki Walker, however Richard Walmsley being unavailable on this occasion we're delighted to be accompanied for the first time by the exceptionally talented Geoffrey Woollatt, assistant organist of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, who will also play some organ music, demonstrating the fine instrument in this lovely building.

Perth Choral Evensong

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

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!

Audition day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Old Saint Paul's, Edinburgh

On Saturday 28th April 2012 at 4pm RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong in Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, 39 Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DH, directed by Frikki Walker and accompanied on the organ by Geoffrey Woollatt.

The music will be

• Introit: O sons and daughters (Walford Davies)
• Responses: Clucas
• Canticles: Murrill in E
• Anthem: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (Stanford
• Final Responses (Naylor)

Old Saint Paul's is a lovely building, set just off the Royal Mile within the confines of Edinburgh's Old Town, and the choir are very much looking forward to the visit. 

Organ and Choir

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

Copyright © The Royal School of Church Music

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

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

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

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

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





Ave Verum Corpus