The first half of our 2014 season drew to a close with a fine Choral Evensong in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow on Saturday 14th June, following which a pleasingly high number of choir members moved along the road a little to Munro's Pub where despite the noisy (but good natured) crowd already there enjoying the soccer world cup on TV we took advantage of a couple of tables being booked for us (it's where St Mary's Cathedral choir members go on a Sunday after Choral Evensong so the staff are friendly and accommodating) and socialised happily for the next few hours.
The service was led by Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, who sang the Clucas responses for us, and we were directed by Frikki Walker and accompanied by Richard Walmsley.
The next time we meet will be for our annual residential rehearsal weekend in August but that doesn't involve any public performance, so the next time you can hear us sing is on Saturday 6th September 2014 when we will sing Choral Evensong at 4pm in St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Dundee.
In the meantime our choir administrator and director of music will be meeting in the next few days to decide on the dates and venues for 2015 (yes, it really does need done this far in advance!) and that meeting will also involve the administrator of RSCM Young Scottish Voices. After singing with us for the first time very successfully and enjoyably in Paisley Abbey a couple of weeks ago it is the intention that while still taking part in their own events the youngsters will sing a bit more often with the adult choir, and this is the first step in making that happen. Watch this space for further details!
Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts
Sunday, 15 June 2014
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
RSCM Scottish Voices crosses Hadrian's Wall
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| York Minster |
The service was on the bank holiday Monday (May Day) and we all made our own separate ways there, some going down a good few days early to make the most of the trip, some going there and back on the day itself, and many dragging along long-suffering partners with them! After a most enjoyable circuitous route zigzagging by motorcycle through the borders I arrived in York on the Sunday afternoon just in time to check into the hotel and wander over for the Minster Choir's Choral Evensong when they sang Ayleward Responses (a favourite of mine), Dyson in D Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (standard repertoire but very enjoyable nonetheless) and Ye choirs of new Jerusalem by Stanford (which RSCM Scottish Voices sang the previous week in Old Saint Paul's Church in Edinburgh - and dare I say it our sopranos sounded better in the opening phrase "the paschal victory to hymn in strains of holy joy" at the bit where tradition dictates most choirs squeak out and clip short the top G on the first syllable of the word "victory"). The sound the Minster choir made was magnificent, particularly the men, a glorious rounded luxuriant noise. Great stuff!
The hotel I and two others were staying in was the Guy Fawkes Inn, straight across from the south west corner of the Minster in High Petergate, and it's built on the site of the building in which Guy Fawkes was born and right next to the church in which he was baptised - St Michael le Belfrey. It's a Real Ale pub and the beer, food, accommodation and staff were all excellent and to be recommended. In fact, if you follow the link to the church the photo on Wikipedia of the front of the church (at the time of writing this) shows the Guy Fawkes Inn to its right.
So to the day of the service, and after two of us had a nice long walk together round the city walls doing the touristy bit in the morning we all assembled at 1pm in St William's College, a 15th century Tudor building directly to the east of the Minster. Once the mundane things like seating arrangements were over we started a fairly short rehearsal under the direction of Gordon Appleton, Director of RSCM Voices North and RSCM Regional Music Adviser for the north of England (well, for the moment he is, since he's about to retire which was partly the reason for this service being on his patch and under his direction).
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| York Minster and the city walls |
After a short'ish break we continued the rehearsal in the Minster but surprisingly and slightly disappointingly to me the decision was taken that we wouldn't robe for this (I always think that robing while rehearsing in choirstalls is to be encouraged), and we got through all the music (although despite it being a long psalm it was actually less than we normally would sing in an RSCM Scottish Voices service simply because there was no Introit).
Another very short break (during which the battle for access to the toilets commenced!) and we were then into the service of Choral Evensong itself. It takes a lot to pull a choir that size together in such a short space of time, and rather enjoyably pretty much all of the wee odd rough edges of the rehearsal disappeared as the choir produced a very pleasing sound, and Gordon Appleton came into his own with some very animated directing while standing on a box so those furthest from him (that would be me then) had a sporting chance of seeing a beat to follow! Oh, and the priest singing the responses was none other than Richard Shephard!
Congregationally it was a pretty full Quire (for those reading this who aren't familiar with cathedral architecture and nomenclature that's the name for the part of the building in which we were singing, not a dreadful typo!) and afterwards I didn't quite manage to find and speak to all those I'd have liked to, but I did manage to finally meet Sue Snell, the RSCM's Head of Education, who has always been unfailingly helpful in email correspondence. It's good to put a face to an email address!
The great and the good then disappeared off to an official function, where I'm given to understand that Lord Gill, Chairman of the RSCM Council, made special mention of RSCM Scottish Voices in his speech, and I'm also told that it had been noticed that RSCM Scottish Voices singers acquitted ourselves admirably! One comment I got from a VERY experienced church musician who was in the congregation and whose opinion I respect 100% was "all in all a great event".
I'm neither great nor good, so along with most of the Scottish contingent I went across the road to the Guy Fawkes Inn, where we had food and drink and good company well into the night.
As I said at the start of this post, this is the first time we've been invited to one of these events, and it was really nice to be asked. It was a real shame that we couldn't take everyone in the choir, but that was all out of our hands, however those who were there represented the choir well and I have no doubt we'll be asked again and hopefully might be in a position to take more singers along.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Breakfast with Archibald Simpson
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.
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.
Monday, 24 January 2011
Paisley report
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.
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.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Forfar
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.
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.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Holy Trinity Kilmarnock
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.
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!
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.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Glasgow, February 2010
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.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Haddington report
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!
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!
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Edinburgh, November 2009
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.
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