Crowborough Choral Society
Patrons: Felicity Lott D.B.E. and Serena Kay
Newsletter
Number 25, September 2010
Autumn Term
Welcome back for the new season
Our music over the past year has covered a period of approximately 170 years, from Haydn’s Creation of 1796-98, Fauré’s Requiem of 1877, Gershwin and Porter of the 1920s and 1930s, to Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms of 1965. The choir is sometimes accused of singing the music we like (true) and not music that the public will like. But if you asked a hundred members of the public what they would like us to sing you would get a hundred different answers. What could be more popular than the works by Haydn, Fauré and Gershwin? The Bernstein was not so well known, but personally I felt it was a great piece of music providing a challenge to the choir and enjoyed by many. Our Constitution requires us to ‘…foster public knowledge and appreciation of such choral music by means of public performance.’ The marvellous variety of music last season goes some way to maintaining this element of the Constitution.
One unfortunate aspect of our concerts was poor ticket sales. The sale of tickets is vital to enable us to be financially viable. And without a good sized audience there is less atmosphere and less incentive to get the best from the choir.
Choir numbers have dropped dramatically (approximately 15%) over the last couple of years which, along with poor ticket sales, does not help to maintain a sound financial base. Your committee is therefore engaged in an active campaign to recruit new members. Posters will be displayed and several thousand fliers distributed around Crowborough and the surrounding areas, giving details of the choir and its activities and inviting new members. If you require fliers for friends and acquaintances, please ask.
There will be a scratch type ‘Messiah’ in November with harpsichord, organ, strings and trumpet, as well as professional soloists, to which members of other choirs will be invited and also anyone who may be interested in joining the choir but who may be shy of committing to rehearsals and might wish to dip a toe in the water. Fees from visiting singers will help defray the costs of the concert.
As ‘Messiah’ is well known to most choir members and in order to provide more interest in rehearsals this term our Christmas programme will incorporate a selection from Benjamin Britten’s ‘Ceremony of Carols’. The plan for our 2011 Easter concert is to sing Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’. It is anticipated that we will be joined (in Crowborough this time) by the Fletching Singers and local children’s choirs.
So along with our proposed trip to Hungary the coming season promises to be entertaining, interesting and invigorating. So dust off your Watkins Shaw and I look forward to seeing you on 8 September.
Finally may I thank you your continuing support and help at concerts and social events.
Charles
Acting Chair
Special invitation for members of Crowborough Choral Society
Come and join a singing day at Beacon Community College on Saturday 25th September. The Crowborough Arts Festival project has invited Scott Stroman, a world renowned choral and jazz conductor, and Professor of Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music, to lead a day for singers (and non-singers alike) to learn a variety of songs, including gospel and world music. As we all know, the joy of singing together makes our day better and lifts our spirits. This will be a fun relaxed day learning songs from scratch.
Visiting Crowborough and East Sussex for the first time Eclectic Voices, Scott’s well known London Choir, will be joining us at the workshop, before performing their concert in the evening, also at Beacon Community College. This unique and exciting vocal group will be performing Scott’s own arranged Shakespeare Songs and Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music. If you have enjoyed the day and join the audience for the concert, Scott will invite you to perform the songs you have learned with him during the day. The choir will be accompanied by professional jazz musicians including Alec Dankworth.
Discount rate tickets for Choral Society members: package of workshop and concert ticket £12.00 (full price £2.50 and £12.50).
Tickets are available from Cro’s the Jewellers, Crowborough High Street, or from Ally Cook by phoning 662673, or on the door.
Full details on the Arts Festival website:
www.crowboroughartsfestival.co.uk
Ally
Annual General Meeting
Crowborough Choral Society hereby gives notice that in accordance with the Society’s
Constitution the AGM for 2010 will be held on:
Wednesday 20th October 2010.
Dates for your diary
|
First rehearsal Autumn term
|
8 Sept
|
|
Half term (no rehearsal)
|
27 Oct
|
|
Concert—Messiah
|
06 Nov
|
|
Carols—High Hurstwood
|
12 Dec
|
|
Carols—Jarvis Brook
|
15 Dec
|
|
Carols—Wakehurst Place
|
17 Dec
|
|
First rehearsal Spring term 2011
|
5 Jan
|
|
Spring Concert 2011
|
2 April
|
Congratulations to our 100 Club winners! At the first draw on 26 May the lucky winners were:
1st Pauline Trotter
2nd David Penn
3rd Jane Tilbury
At the second draw on 16 June winners were:
1st Carol Place
2nd John McLachlan
3rd Andrew Hamer
This season the 100 Club Draws will be held on the following dates:
20 October (AGM night)
8 December
(Christmas Bumper Draw)
9 February 2011
23 March 2011
We now have 64 members of the 100 Club, but more are welcome. Remember that this is a good fund raiserfor for the society. While 50% of the money raised is awarded as prizes, the other 50% goes towards choir funds. So why not join up? And don’t forget members of the family and special friends.
Anne
Good news! Enough people are interested in the proposed trip to Hungary to make it
viable. However, there are a few places remaining, so if you are interested in joining the group for the visit in May 2011, please let me know as soon as possible at the beginning of term.
Colin
Content updated 03 September 2010 09:08:16 JS
Newsletter
Number 24, April 2010
Spring/Summer
From the Chair
British Summer Time is here, complete with monsoon showers and hailstones, and it is time to dig out the lawn mower. We start back on 21 April to rehearse for the summer concert, based on music from the 1920s and 1930s, including songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter and Jerome Kern. Of course, this era also covers the Depression, so not much change there then!
It should be a summer concert to lift the winter blues, and we plan to include some audience participation to entice potential singers to join the choir. So don't drift away until September muttering something about '...got to mow the lawn' but come and sing these delightful melodies.
The joint concert of Haydn's Creation on 20 March was a great success, enjoyed by choirs, orchestra, soloists, musical directors and audience. Congratulations to everyone involved. The production of a concert this size is expensive, but a joint venture of this kind enables choirs and musical directors to have the opportunity to work with large orchestras and fine soloists to perform the major choral works. It is hoped that future joint productions will ensue in due course. The big disappointment is that only 219 tickets were sold out of a possible 300 - a loss of almost £1000. We must make greater efforts to sell tickets for concerts in order to minimise these losses.
It is good news that the 100 Club is to be reinstated at the start of the Summer Term (see below for details). Well done and thanks to Anne Symons who has agreed to take over this fund raising initiative. A lot of work is involved in getting this back up and running and your commitment to join would be much appreciated.
Well done, and thanks to everybody. Enjoy!
Charles
Acting Chair
Dates for your diary
|
First Rehearsal Summer Term
|
21 April Jan
|
|
Mini market at rehearsal
|
5 May
|
|
Half Term (no rehearsal)
|
2 June
|
|
Summer Concert
|
19 June
|
|
First Rehearsal Autumn Term
|
8 Sept
|
|
Autumn Concert — Messiah
|
6 Nov
|
At a glance
Summer Concert
Fascinating Rhythm
Music from the 1920s and 1930s
Saturday 19 June 2010, 2.30 and 7.30 pm
All Saints Church Hall, Crowborough
Handel’s Messiah ‘Come and sing’
Saturday 6 November 2010
All Saints Church, Crowborough
This year’s summer concert
This year’s summer concert will be based around the music of the 1920s and 1930s. We have tracked down a medley of ten Gershwin songs, and a selection from the Jerome Kern/ Oscar Hammerstein classic Showboat. These two pieces of music will be available to buy from Sheila at a cost of £4.50.
We will also be singing a number of arrangements from the collection The Memory of All That which we used a few years ago. So search out your copy and bring it along to the first rehearsal. If you don’t have a copy then you can buy one for £5.
As well as the choir pieces we are also looking to have a few ensemble and solo numbers, so if you have an idea for a song that would fit the theme and would like to sing something on your own or in a small group, just let Sheila or Colin know.
Of course, one of the fun aspects of the summer concert in recent years has been getting dressed up. This time there are any number of ways you could go with such a broad theme. For inspiration, perhaps take a look at an episode of Poirot on the television. So dig out that dressing-up box and get thinking!
Jane
100 Club
To get the 100 Club back up and running from this May we are looking for a minimum of 30 members to make it reasonably viable, but more participants will provide a greater opportunity for extra draws and prizes. For an annual fee of £12 you will be allocated your own unique draw number. This fee covers three music terms, with two draws each term.
If sufficient people sign up we hope to have a draw at the end of May, and another in June. Draws will be made at a Wednesday night rehearsal. The first prize will be £20, with a second prize of £10. If we can get the number of participants up to 60 then there can be three draws a term and a further two prizes of £5 each time.
I’ll be putting out flyers at the first rehearsal next term and then collecting enrolment fees and details from the next week. Remember that this is a good fund raiser for the society. While 50% of the money raised is awarded as prizes the other 50% goes towards choir funds. So why not enrol each member of your family or special friends?
Anne
Trip to Hungary
After the success of our trips to Poland and Spain, a six-night, seven-day concert holiday is being planned for late May 2011, this time to Hungary, and centred around Budapest and Lake Balaton.
It would include (only) two concerts, a visit to a wine cellar (no organised singing this time!), an historic castle visit and a river cruise. It is hoped to contain the cost to about £800 per head, including flights, with part of the week being full board at a hotel near Lake Balaton.
These are suggestions at the moment, but we will need to know during the Summer term who would be interested so that we can see if such a trip would be viable.
Colin
Content updated 16 June 2010 09:31:24 JS
Newsletter
Number 23, January 2010
Winter/Spring Term
Welcome to the New Year
A certain amount of trepidation was experienced by the choir at the prospect of performing Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’. However an excellent performance by the gallant 52 for the autumn concert dispelled those fears as the choir rose magnificently to the challenge. Colin’s fingernails can start growing again!
The great disappointment was the number in the audience ― a mere 128 tickets were sold. This was a shame after the fine efforts made during rehearsals. We really must make greater efforts to sell tickets for these events. A great deal of work is done by the choir and the committee for these concerts and I am sure that we all appreciate singing to a full church rather than a half empty one. It is also financially important that we sell tickets for the future viability of the choir and to ensure that a greater range of works can be achieved. No doubt the bad weather on concert night did not help. Choir numbers have also dropped by around 15%. The committee plan to have a brainstorming session in the New Year to formulate a recruitment campaign, but in many ways each member of the choir is an ambassador and should endeavour to make the choir known outside the Herne School hall and interest friends and neighbours to join the choir, as long as they can hold a tune of course.
It is good news that this season the society is being generously sponsored by the David Josef Bach Quest. For any of you who did not see the fascinating display at the concert in November, there is a short article about David Josef Bach overleaf.
As many of you will now be aware, our 2010 Easter concert o Haydn’s ‘Creation’ is to be a joint venture with Fletching Singers. Normal rehearsals will be held at Herne school led by Colin, but the concert performance, to be held at St Philip’s Church in Uckfield, will be conducted by Musical Director of the Fletching Singers, Nick Milner-Gulland. One or two combined rehearsals will be held later in the rehearsal period.
The committee is looking to organise a series of events for fundraising and also as social gatherings this term. The first will be Bridget Furneaux’s ‘Soup Lunch’ on 3 January and then Michael Prince will once again be hosting a quiz on 6 February. Due to the confines of the hall ticket numbers for the quiz will be limited to 64, so do not delay in obtaining your ticket.
Charles
Acting Chair
Dates for your diary
|
Soup Lunch
|
3 Jan
|
|
First Rehearsal Spring Term
|
6 Jan
|
|
Quiz Night
|
6 Feb
|
|
Half Term (no rehearsal)
|
17 Feb
|
|
Easter Concert—Haydn’s Creation
|
20 Mar
|
|
First Rehearsal Summer Term
|
21 Apr
|
|
Summer Concert (tbc)
|
19 Jun
|
The Creation-in English or German?
During the course of his long life, Haydn witnessed many radical changes in music. He was eighteen when Bach died in 1750, towards the end of the Baroque period, and seventy-two when Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony was first performed in 1804, ushering in the Romantic period.
For much of his life, Haydn’s energies were devoted primarily to composing orchestral and instrumental music. The choral masterpieces of his old age – including The Creation, and The Seasons – were composed after 1795, the year in which he completed the last of his 104 symphonies.
Haydn, honoured in England as the greatest living composer, was presented with a libretto for an oratorio entitled The Creation, which had been intended for Handel but never set to music by him. Haydn had the libretto translated into German, and proceeded to compose the work in German but the original English libretto has since been lost so it is not known how faithful the translation was. The first printed edition in 1800, included the text in both languages but, because the original English words did not fit Haydn’s music, certain lines were re-translated into English, resulting in many idiosyncrasies that various editors have tried to correct ever since. This is not an easy task because of the special flavour of the libretto, which combines quotes from the Bible with passages derived from John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost.
We shall be singing The Creation in the language of the original libretto, English.
Music
This term we will be using the old Novello edition of the Creation, i.e. not the latest edition (edited by Michael Pilkington). Please don’t go out and buy a copy of the new version, because apparently there are numerous differences. Plenty of copies of the old edition will be available to hire.
Sheila
Did you know?
The Fletching Singers, with whom we are singing our next concert, started out in 1979 as a group that got together to sing carols at Christmas. As the choir developed, they were led by a number of musical directors, including Mark Wigglesworth, who went on to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1988 Anne Gee took over the baton and her influence and energy were far reaching. More singers were attracted and more ambitious works performed. On Anne Gee’s retirement in 1997, Tim Sagar was appointed conductor ad the Fletching Singers continued to perform more challenging works.
In 2002, the choir welcomed as conductor Nick Milner-Gulland, retired head of Cumnor House School, where he taught classics, drama and music. Since then singing membership of Fletching Singers has grown steadily to the present numbers of around 60. Thanks to Nick’s musical links the choir has gone on to perform concerts with the Ryde Chorus from the Isle of Wight and at L’Eglise de St Remy in Dieppe.
Nick studied piano with Arnold Foster and organ with Sir David Willcocks while he was at Cambridge, where he studied Classics. He has conducted the Fayrfax Singers for over 30 years and is organist at Ringmer Parish Church. He plays organ, harpsichord and piano at many local concerts and venues and also teaches at HMP Lewes.
David Josef Bach Quest
David Josef Bach was a Jewish Austrian who worked as a journalist in Vienna. From 1917 he edited the literature and arts section of the Arbeiter Zeitung (Workers’ Newspaper). He was a committed social democrat and worked tirelessly to make music and the arts accessible to the workers. By a system of subsidised block bookings, he enabled the poorly paid to attend symphony concerts over a period of 29 years.
On the occasion of his 50th birthday Bach was presented with a box containing 88 tributes from his friends (most of whom were prominent artists, writers and musicians), including written tributes, original musical compositions and works of art.
In 1939 Bach moved to London with his wife and his nephew Herbert, who became a GP. One of our members was adopted by Herbert and his wife and eventually inherited the ‘birthday box’. Research continues, hence the David Josef Bach Quest.
This term at a glance
Sunday 3 January 2009
Soup Lunch with Bridget and Alan
Furneaux
Saturday 6 February
Quiz Night at HerneSchool
Saturday 20 March
Haydn’s Creation
Joint concert with Fletching Singers
St Philip’s Church, Uckfield