Crowborough Choral Society
Patrons: Felicity Lott D.B.E. and Serena Kay
Number 28, January 2012
Winter/Spring Term
From the Chair
The strains of the Christmas carols have died away - many thanks to all those of you who took part in any or all of our appearances. Thanks are due to our friends at High Hurstwood and the Jarvis Brook Abbeyfield committee for their hospitality, and also to our organists, John Marsh and Nick Milner-Gulland, who did us proud. We look forward to seeing more of Nick next term as, together with the Fletching Singers, we tackle the Dvořák Stabat Mater.
I think it is also worth recalling our excellent Autumn concert - both the performance and the fact that we managed to reduce the budgeted deficit. Many thanks to all of you who sold tickets. As our Treasurer notes overleaf however, it would be good it we could sell even more tickets.
I hear that our twin choir, the Rellinger Kantorei, put on an excellent Christmas
Concert, and that the programme opened with Britten’s ‘Ceremony of Carols’. When the new Kantor, Oliver Schmidt, came to perform his organ solo - a Toccata by Bach - his score had mysteriously disappeared. A stressful moment indeed!
However, he was able to save the day with a polished performance of a Bach Prelude, to great acclaim. The final choral work was accompanied by the former Kantor, Wolfgang Zilcher, who of course is known to many of us.
Enough waffling! By the time you read this, I hope you will all have enjoyed a happy - even merry - Christmas. And I hope to see many of you at Bridget’s Soup Lunch on 8th January, otherwise at Herne School on the 11th for our first rehearsal of the Dvořák Stabat Mater.
Alan
Chairman
Our 100 Club now boasts 70 members. Congratulations go to all the winners so far this academic year, especially first placed Hilda Short in May, Val Marriott in October and Mark Symons who scooped the bumper Christmas prize.
Membership can still be accepted for the final three draws to take place at rehearsals on 8th February, 7th March and 18th April 2012. The membership fee is £6 for each draw number. Currently, first prize will be £25, second prize £15 and third prize £10. The more members we have, the greater the prize money.
For membership and any other details about the 100 Club please contact Anne Symons 01892 668453 or Joyce Gillett 01892 662919
Anne
Grief and salvation in the Stabat Mater
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) composed his first important sacred work in the shadow of death. In 1875 Dvořák and his wife Anna lost their infant daughter Josefa at the age of just two days. Dvořák channelled his grief into music by beginning work on a large-scale setting of the Stabat Mater. After sketching out the basic themes and structure of the work, he then set it aside to fulfill other commitments. Unfortunately, further tragedy brought him back to it in 1877 when, within a month, both Dvořák’s baby daughter Ruženka and three-year-old son Otakar died. In his grief, Dvořák once again took up work on his sketches for the Stabat Mater and completed it in about two months. The result is a passionate work, regarded as a masterpiece, which begins with the grief of death but then after an emotional journey culminates in a magnificent affirmation of the hope
of salvation in paradise.
The text of the Stabat Mater is a thousand year-old poem comprised of prayers to the Virgin Mary as she stands at the foot of the cross watching the crucifixion of Jesus. Each of the ten movements of Dvořák’s work displays contrasting moods, keys and tempos typical of his symphonies and even more characteristic of the Slavonic Dances.
The first performance of the Stabat Mater took place on 23rd December 1880 in Prague. Dvořák’s career had by then undergone considerable change. Having been an obscure, impoverished church organist and music teacher in 1875, he was now an internationally famous composer.
Following its Prague premiere, the Stabat Mater was performed in Brno, Budapest and London, followed by performances in Germany, Austria and the United States, leading to almost immediate worldwide fame.
It was the first London performance in 1883 that had the greatest impact on Dvořák’s fortunes however. There, the Stabat Mater was so popular that the composer was invited back several times to conduct the work himself. In 1884 he conducted the Stabat Mater in the Royal Albert Hall with a chorus of 250 sopranos, 160 altos, 180 tenors and 250 basses. Dvořák was completely overwhelmed by the response from the performers and the public.
The success of the London performance led to a number of commissions and further performances in England, including that in Worcester in September 1884. Publishers began vying for manuscripts and Dvořák’s fame and financial stability were secured for the rest of his life.
Dates for your diary
|
First Rehearsal Spring Term
|
11 Jan
|
|
Half Term (no rehearsal)
|
15 Feb
|
|
Joint rehearsal with Fletching Singers at Herne School
|
18 March
|
|
Easter Concert—Dvořák Stabat Mater at All Saints
|
24 March
|
|
First Rehearsal Summer Term
|
18 April
|
|
Half Term (no rehearsal)
|
6 June
|
|
Summer Concert
|
23 June
|
From the Treasurer
Ticket sales
Although ticket and programme sales were up for the Autumn concert we still made a loss of £1,579.42, though this was less than budgeted. To break even we would have had to sell a further 132 tickets on top of the 207 we did sell.
Subscriptions
For the few people who took up the option to pay their annual subscription in two instalments this is a reminder that the second payment is now due. Could those who have not paid in full please bring their cheques to the first rehearsal in January.
Brian
Extra rehearsal
There will be an extra rehearsal of the Dvořák Stabat Mater jointly with the Fletching Singers. This will take place on Sunday 18th March at Herne School from 2.30 pm to 5.00 pm.
Colin
Page updated: 30 December 2011, 10:49:36
Newsletter
Number 27, Sept 2011
Autumn Term
The choral society goes global
Our first concert in Hungary concluded in a joint encore with the Budapest choir, Zrínyi Miklós Egyetemi Énekkar, who have uploaded the two encore items onto YouTube. We have placed a link to this on the ‘About us’ section of the CCS website for your delight.
Summer is drawing to a close and the autumn term beckons us for our 2011/ 2012 season. November’s concert of Mozart’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria will be accompanied by a 23-piece orchestra, while the spring concert will be a joint performance with the Fletching singers of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater.
The present choir number is about 45/50 singers and the committee are again looking at recruitment ideas. The choir also needs to keep a high profile in the community and concerts with local schools are one way of achieving this. Participation by school choirs in concerts helps generate audience and gain interest from future singers.
Some members of the committee will be standing down at the AGM and we require new members to stand for election. Two singers have already offered their services but others are required. We are particularly keen for one or two people to take on the role of Publicity Officer. Michael Prince has produced an excellent manual to provide some insight into the procedures and can discuss the requirements with anyone interested. Also we would like to hear from anyone in the choir who would be interested, in an honorary capacity, to update the choir’s website each term.
This is my last Newsletter as, after two years convalescence from his previous stint, Alan Crook will be resuming the role of Chairman. His experience and expertise will be of great benefit to the future of the choir.
Enjoy.
Charles
Chairman
The impromptu encore after our first concert in Hungary was one of the highlights of the trip. We sang in St Michael’s Church in Budapest with the Zrínyi Miklós Egyetemi Énekkar choir from Budapest. To view it on YouTube, just follow the link under the ‘About us’ section on our website.
Dates for your diary
|
First rehearsal Autumn Term
|
14 Sept
|
|
Mini Market
|
5 Oct
|
|
Concert—Mozart Requiem/Vivaldi Gloria
|
26 Nov
|
|
Carols—High Hurstwood (tbc)
|
11 Dec
|
|
Carols—Jarvis Brook (tbc)
|
14 Dec
|
|
Carols—Wakehurst Place (tbc)
|
16 Dec
|
|
Spring Concert 2012
|
24 March Jan
|
|
Summer Concert 2012
|
23 June
|
At a Glance: 2011-2012 Season
Mozart—Requiem
Vivaldi—Gloria
All Saints’, Crowborough
Saturday 26 November 2011
Dvořák—Stabat Mater
Joint concert with Fletching Singers
All Saints’, Crowborough
Saturday 24 March 2012
Summer Concert
(programme to be decided)
All Saints’ Church Hall, Crowborough
Saturday 23 June 2012
Mozart or Süssmayr?
When Mozart died on 18 November 1791 he had recently completed La Clemenza di Tito and the hugely successful Magic Flute. One major work, however, remained unfinished. In July of that year, Count Franz von Walsegg had, anonymously via an envoy, commissioned Mozart to write a Requiem to be performed annually in memory of the Count’s wife. Half of the generous fee was paid in advance; the remainder was to be paid on completion of the work.
Before his death Mozart had completed only the Requiem’s opening movement, the Requiem aeternam, along with much of the Kyrie and parts of the Sequence, the long section beginning with the Dies Irae and ending with the Lacrimosa. For some of the remaining movements he left sketches or drafts in varying states of completion, but for the concluding movements there was nothing.
After Mozart’s death, his widow Constanze, faced with supporting herself and two young children, desperately needed the other half of Count Walsegg’s fee. She asked both F.X. Freystädtler and Joseph Eybler to work on the Requiem, but neither of them was able to complete it. It appears that Constanze tried to enlist the help of a number of other respected composers but ultimately settled for Franz Süssmayr, Mozart’s copyist and occasional pupil. Süssmayr used substantial parts of the orchestration begun by Freystädtler and Eybler, and for the closing passages he repeated Mozart’s own music from the opening movement. Much more daunting, however, was the task of writing the entire Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei himself, the prospect of which had defeated his reputedly more talented fellow composers. Süssmayr however managed to complete the task and the work was finished in February 1792. Opinions differ as to the quality of the Süssmayr movements, but it was thanks to him that the Count received the manuscript and Constanze was paid the promised sum. It will never be entirely certain precisely which music is Mozart’s and which Süssmayr’s, but Mozart’s genius shines through the entire work.
Flashmob in Esztergom
Apart from the two concerts in Hungary, we also just happened to have our music with us when we visited the magnificent Basilica in Esztergom. At 117 metres long and 47 metres wide it is the largest church in Hungary. It also has a 72 metre-high central dome and an amazing acoustic. What the other visitors thought when we got together and started singing is hard to say, but they did applaud when we finished. Needless to say, this was on the day that we all went ‘round the bend’ ― the Danube Bend, that is!
Annual General Meeting
Crowborough Choral Society hereby gives notice that in accordance with the Society’s Constitution the AGM for 2011 will be held on Wednesday 19 October 2011.
Help!
For the past few years Michael Prince has very kindly allowed us to use his garage to store various items. As Michael is now planning to move we urgently need somewhere to store things, particularly six flat packs containing the twelve benches sometimes used as choir seating for summer concerts. Do you have any room in your garage or shed for these? If so, please let Charles or Alan know.
This term we will be using the Novello edition of the Mozart Requiem and the Ricordi edition (edited by Malipiero) of the Vivaldi Gloria. Both scores will be available to hire, or to buy at £8.95 for the Mozart and £11.99 for the Vivaldi.
Sheila
Page updated: 05 September 2011, 10:21:18 JS
Number 26, January 2011
Autumn/Spring
Welcome to the New Year
Well, Christmas is over and no doubt some turkeys are breathing a sigh of relief. The recruitment campaign organised at the beginning of the season was successful inrecruiting new singing members to the society. Unfortunately an equivalent number have not rejoined so that numerically the choir is approximately the same as the 2009/2010 season. The ‘open’ Messiah autumn concert was very successful with veryappreciative comments from the 29 visiting singers. Unusually for the autumn concert we actually made a small profit. Although well attended there were still a number of vacant seats which leads me to the same old request, please get out thereand sell tickets.
The lead-in period to the carol concerts was disrupted due to the car accident involving Colin who was rendered ‘hors de combat’ as far as rehearsals and the services were concerned. However we were fortunate that Derek Watmough stepped into the breach and conducted rehearsals and the High Hurstwood service, while Nick Milner-Gulland very kindly offered to conduct the St Michael’s service. We were also blessed with Jenny Dinnage for accompanying us on the organ at both services and with the very assured Anna Wynne on harp at St Michael’s. The services provided a delightful combination of the traditional Nowell Nowell with the Britten Ceremony of Carols.
Our spring concert of Carmina Burana will be a further collaborative venture with our friends the Fletching Singers, and also the Cumnor House children’s choir, this time under the leadership of Colin.
In the near future our publicity officer Michael Prince will depart for pastures new and the sound of seagulls. We therefore urgently require a person or persons (not necessarily a singer) to take on this role. Michael is quite willing to liaise with interested parties to enable a comprehensive lead-in period. Anybody interested should talk with Michael or me.
I wish you all a happy New Year and hope to welcome you back in good voice on 12th January, weather permitting, to commence rehearsals for Carmina Burana.
Enjoy.
Charles
Acting Chair
Carl Orff and Carmina Burana
Carl Orff composed a number of works for the theatre and concert hall but he is chiefly remembered for his dramatic cantata, Carmina Burana, written in 1936. Born in Munich in 1895, Orff came from a musical family and had a number of songs and
other pieces published while still in his teens. His style at that time was ‘post-romantic’, and was influenced by both Schoenberg and Richard Strauss. In addition, Orff’s ground-breaking research into the way in which music and movement are
instinctively linked in young children resulted in a radical change in how music was taught in schools throughout Europe and beyond – his Orff-Schulwerk, published in 1930, is still in use today. He was fascinated with the power of primitive rhythms and simple melodies. This gradually found expression in his own compositions and Carmina Burana has a deliberately simplified style, with great rhythmic energy and repeated short melodic phrases.
The text of Carmina Burana is a selection from a large collection of secular poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, preserved in a manuscript at the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuren and discovered in 1803. The poems are mostly in Latin,though some are in old French or Middle High German, and most are in fact bawdy student songs celebrating such earthy and very un-monklike pastimes as drinking, gambling, and dancing.
Originally written for the stage, with dancing and mime accompanying the music, Carmina Burana was first performed at the Frankfurt Opera House on 8 June 1937. Orff was frequently dismissed by the critics but Carmina Burana had immediate
appeal for the public and has remained a great favourite ever since.
|
First Rehearsal Spring Term
|
12 Jan
|
|
Half Term (no rehearsal)
|
23 Feb
|
|
Easter Concert—Carmina Burana
|
2 April
|
|
First Rehearsal Summer Term
|
27 April
|
|
Hungary Trip
|
29 May
|
|
Half Term (no rehearsal)
|
1 June
|
|
Summer Concert
|
25 June
|
Congratulations to our latest 100 Club winners. At Christmas we were able to have a special Bumper Christmas Draw with four rather than the usual three prizes. The
lucky prizewinners were:
First Prize (£75)
Sarah McNab
Second Prize (£50)
Carol Place
Third Prize (£23.50)
Sue Davis
Fourth Prize (£10)
Chris Benton
A total of 64 members joined the 100 100 Club for the full year, and a further four
have joined up since. Of course, more members would be most welcome. The 100
Club is a good fund raiser for the society. Of the money raised, 50% is awarded as
prizes, and the other 50% goes towards choir funds. So why not join up? Family and friends are also very welcome to join.
Anne
Content updated 04 January 2011, 15:44:09 JS