Overwhelming response to this year’s invitation to singers: oversubscribed in virtually every voice (not tenors, of course, but they always require special nurturing). Makes life very easy for us, but very disappointing for those we will have to turn away, including some long-standing friends.
Author: Marianne Barton
All in place
And the final piece of the jigsaw: Stinsford have confirmed us for Wednesday 18 July.The demolished musicians’ gallery was reinstated in the 1990s and now houses a little continuo-style organ in place of the instruments which would have been familiar in Thomas Hardy’s day. Will we fit up there, I wonder? And can we source music such as Hardy’s contemporaries would have heard? Watch this space!
Singing at Pimperne
Really charming email today from Alison Davies, director of music for the Benefice which includes Pimperne, to say that they look forward to welcoming us at S. Peter’s on Friday 20 July. We’ve not sung there since 2000. Just one more church to confirm (Stinsford), and we have a full house!
2018 tour taking shape
Plans for the 2018 tour taking shape, with three out of five churches confirmed. In addition to Wimborne Minster, S. James, Poole and SS. Peter & Paul, Cattistock, we hope to sing in S. Michael, Stinsford where Thomas Hardy is buried. Dates are 15–22 July.
Congregational stamina
Planners of carol services should consider the vocal stamina of congregations when choosing carols. By the end of an otherwise very well-thought-out service we (two competent singers) were nearing vocal exhaustion after singing through, in quick succession, all verses of ‘The holly and the ivy’, ‘Angels from the realms of glory’ and ‘The first Nowell’, all of which sit very high in the average voice. But the mulled wine afterwards helped to restore tired vocal cords!
The power of choral music
Yesterday at the Royal Albert Hall two huge groups of singers, 1,400 of them aged 6–25, and 3,200 aged 15–90, left the building inspired and wreathed in smiles after The Scratch® Youth Messiah and Messiah from Scratch® respectively. The power of choral music to create goodwill and harmony among human beings simply cannot be overstated. We all need more of it, not less!
John Rutter sums it all up in an interview from March 2015, saying that a ‘choral music is not one of life’s frills’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-Pm1FYZ-U). If you’ve not seen this clip, watch it.
Website at last!
Wonderful to be able finally to launch the Laudemus website on an unsuspecting community of choral singers. Thanks to two valuable tenors – Nick Tollemache and Simon Ashdown – for all their help in overcoming the technical ignorance of the Laudemus administrator!