This has been an interesting term for several reasons. Having changed my work pattern I have been able to change the way that I approach my Choral work. The most notable thing is that I have more time to spend on preparation. Warm ups can be more tailored to the needs of the rehearsal and be more varied. When I had minimal time for preparation I increasingly relied on formulaic warmups and didn't pay much attention to the flow of rehearsal. With more time I can pay more attention not only to the structure of the individual rehearsal but the overall rehearsal period. The result is that as performance draws near there is less tension all round. All the performances were less stressful in the end.
Choral Society performed Elijah in November. Elijah is an unusual work in that the chorus has a more important role than in many oratorios. There is a lot of chorus work and we had a relatively short rehearsal period. Many of the singers went into the last few rehearsals feeing underprepared for whatever reason. The performance, though, was good with some fine singing and playing.
The Newstead Abbey Singers gave a vey good Christmas Concert. They were able to welcome back the instrumental group that had to be dispensed with a couple of years ago for a variety of reasons, the principal of which was cost, thanks to the generosity and loyalty of the players. Charpentier's Messe de Minuit formed the basis of the first half and we debuted four pieces from Carols for Choirs 5.
Junior Choral just had one performance as part of the nativity at the White Post Farm Centre. Owing to a mistake on my personal diary I left the direction to Vicky. It's nice to hear children singing nicely.
My main concern over the past few months is the question of decreasing numbers. Membership of both adult choirs is reducing and also audience numbers are going down. Choral Society membership is now about 90, it was well over 100. Some members have gone through retirement and moving on and a few have moved to different choirs. This in itself is nothing new but the difference is that there has not been an equivalent number of replacements. I know that we are not alone. The question is: do we need to do anything about it? If the answer is yes it prompts the further question of what do we do about it?
The Newstead Abbey Singers are also losing members. Recently two men have moved on which leaves a balanced group but no room for manoeuvre should anyone miss a concert for whatever reason. Any recruitment for this group needs a different approach from the Choral Society.
The Junior Choral is a different kettle of fish. It has held its numbers well from last year, such that it has been unnecessary to recruit new members.
Elijah is one of the choral works that usually draws an audience but on November 17th the audience was disappointing despite having a large number of performers and good soloists. Concert going has gone down in recent years - we are not alone in that - but we need to think how to increase audience numbers to increase revenue. We need to address questions of ticket prices, programming, dates and venues of concerts to see what we can do.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Friday, 7 September 2012
Here we go again
September, season of keen conductors and keen singers, but first to clean off the rust. It is time for choirs to get back to work. For me it's four first rehearsals in five days. Fortunately it was the singing one first, which served as a reminder of how the singers in front of me will be feeling. Lots of warmup and fairly gentle repertoire to start with.
Newstead Abbey Singers are first up. The last time that they sang together was in a very successful concert in July. It will be straight into Christmas as there is quite a bit of new repertoire to learn. Using Carols for Choirs 5 for the first time.
Saturday afternoon is the first rehearsal of the Nottinghamshire Federation W.I. Choir. This year I will be sharing the conducting with the young lady who stood in when I had my stroke last year. On the first rehearsal we introduce the music and the ladies go away and work on it in their own choirs. We have three more rehearsals before the concert on 1st December.
On Monday it is the turn of Southwell Choral Society. Their season includes Eljah and St. Matthew Passion. Lots of big music to sing. Both works have been sung in the past 10 years but there have been quite a number of new members recently so it will be dangerous to assume that they know it.
A very exciting time of year with lots of exciting music to look forward to.
Newstead Abbey Singers are first up. The last time that they sang together was in a very successful concert in July. It will be straight into Christmas as there is quite a bit of new repertoire to learn. Using Carols for Choirs 5 for the first time.
Saturday afternoon is the first rehearsal of the Nottinghamshire Federation W.I. Choir. This year I will be sharing the conducting with the young lady who stood in when I had my stroke last year. On the first rehearsal we introduce the music and the ladies go away and work on it in their own choirs. We have three more rehearsals before the concert on 1st December.
On Monday it is the turn of Southwell Choral Society. Their season includes Eljah and St. Matthew Passion. Lots of big music to sing. Both works have been sung in the past 10 years but there have been quite a number of new members recently so it will be dangerous to assume that they know it.
A very exciting time of year with lots of exciting music to look forward to.
Monday, 27 August 2012
2012 abcd Convention Day 3
Conundrum of tuning, Easter sorted and shopping.
Tuning in a capella music is always a difficult one because of the unnatural nature of the equal temperament that keyboard instruments are tuned to. Should we force singers to adhere to equal temperament or not. David Howard began his session with the statement that "if sung correctly a piece MUST go out of tune". We sang a 13 chord exercise. A room full of choral conductors went a semi- tone flat. We listened to three recordings of the Allegri "Misere" he isolated three chords that should be the same - none of them were. In his work at York University he has researched this extensively and the bottom line is that pitch drift will occur when the key changes. He showed a prediction exercise that demonstrated that 30 well known anthems should change pitch - usually downwards, some of them quite a long way. The conundrum is - stay in tune chord by chord or stay in pitch. The question is - does it matter? It does give us something else to think about when considering tuning.
In the afternoon Bob Chilcott led us through Alan Bullard's "Wondrous Cross". A meditation on the seven last words in a very approachable style achievable by modest singers and conductors. It is a viable alternative to Crucifixion with opportunities for congregational hymns and flexibility of approach. We also sang through Bob's "Jazz Songs of Innocence" - a very good collection for upper voices.
During the day I added to my stock of music with pieces mainly for Junior Choral.
Privileged to share a carriage with Alan Bullard in the way home.
A good, rewarding conference.
Tuning in a capella music is always a difficult one because of the unnatural nature of the equal temperament that keyboard instruments are tuned to. Should we force singers to adhere to equal temperament or not. David Howard began his session with the statement that "if sung correctly a piece MUST go out of tune". We sang a 13 chord exercise. A room full of choral conductors went a semi- tone flat. We listened to three recordings of the Allegri "Misere" he isolated three chords that should be the same - none of them were. In his work at York University he has researched this extensively and the bottom line is that pitch drift will occur when the key changes. He showed a prediction exercise that demonstrated that 30 well known anthems should change pitch - usually downwards, some of them quite a long way. The conundrum is - stay in tune chord by chord or stay in pitch. The question is - does it matter? It does give us something else to think about when considering tuning.
In the afternoon Bob Chilcott led us through Alan Bullard's "Wondrous Cross". A meditation on the seven last words in a very approachable style achievable by modest singers and conductors. It is a viable alternative to Crucifixion with opportunities for congregational hymns and flexibility of approach. We also sang through Bob's "Jazz Songs of Innocence" - a very good collection for upper voices.
During the day I added to my stock of music with pieces mainly for Junior Choral.
Privileged to share a carriage with Alan Bullard in the way home.
A good, rewarding conference.
Sunday, 26 August 2012
2012 abcd Convention Day 2
A really good day. New repertoire, stepping outside the box, new insights, some new ideas and an inspiring concert.
Publishers are putting a lot of new material out there. The five big boys- O.U.P., Faber, Music Sales, Boosey and Hawkes and Peters - presented a selection of their new pieces in handy takeaway booklets. David Lawrence was charged with introducing us to 25 pieces in 75 minutes, which he did with expertise and entertainingly. I came away with several potential new works.
Rhiannon Gayle has several community choirs. She gave us a thorough warm-up and so I stepped out of my comfort zone to attend her session. An hour on one piece that was then sung from memory with choreography. Great fun and a useful physical workout.
Barbershop has not featured in abcd Conventions for some years. It was refreshing to attend Sally McClean's session with the White Rosettes. In fact this was one of the best sessions I had ever been two. Sally demonstrated how the White Rosettes success is built on dedication, meticulous preparation and training combined with personality and enthusiasm. In her session she explained how the choir is "stacked" based on the natural resonance of the individual singers to obtain the optimum sound. The other main aspect of the sound is the technique they call "platforming". There are three platforms: personal (to oneself); to another person and "to the world", each with its own stance. Combined with each platform is a sound e.g. Orchestral, spooky etc. She also touched on how they de-emphasised words to help with rhythm and the effect of the "church" sound.
The York Chapter House Choir is one of the most highly regarded in the country. It remains at the top because it is constantly developing. Stephanie Williams outlined how he keeps a good choir moving forward with contributions from choir members and demonstrating some fine singing.
The concert in Leeds Town Hall was inspiring. Beginning with the excellent Lindley School Choir who sang a well constructed programme with great enthusiasm, control and skill and finishing with a community choir who had only met that morning under Ken Burton's direction Vocado and the York Chapter house choir demonstrated ensemble singing of the highest quality. Vocado is a young Swedish a Capella group. Two girls and three boys. They managed to fill Leeds Town hall with their cultured singing. Restrained, perfectly balanced and expressive they presented a varied programme with an entertaining professionalism. The Chapter House Choir showed why they are one of the country's leading Chamber Choirs being equally assured with a great Victoria motet and complex contemporary harmonies and rhythms.
Slept well.
Publishers are putting a lot of new material out there. The five big boys- O.U.P., Faber, Music Sales, Boosey and Hawkes and Peters - presented a selection of their new pieces in handy takeaway booklets. David Lawrence was charged with introducing us to 25 pieces in 75 minutes, which he did with expertise and entertainingly. I came away with several potential new works.
Rhiannon Gayle has several community choirs. She gave us a thorough warm-up and so I stepped out of my comfort zone to attend her session. An hour on one piece that was then sung from memory with choreography. Great fun and a useful physical workout.
Barbershop has not featured in abcd Conventions for some years. It was refreshing to attend Sally McClean's session with the White Rosettes. In fact this was one of the best sessions I had ever been two. Sally demonstrated how the White Rosettes success is built on dedication, meticulous preparation and training combined with personality and enthusiasm. In her session she explained how the choir is "stacked" based on the natural resonance of the individual singers to obtain the optimum sound. The other main aspect of the sound is the technique they call "platforming". There are three platforms: personal (to oneself); to another person and "to the world", each with its own stance. Combined with each platform is a sound e.g. Orchestral, spooky etc. She also touched on how they de-emphasised words to help with rhythm and the effect of the "church" sound.
The York Chapter House Choir is one of the most highly regarded in the country. It remains at the top because it is constantly developing. Stephanie Williams outlined how he keeps a good choir moving forward with contributions from choir members and demonstrating some fine singing.
The concert in Leeds Town Hall was inspiring. Beginning with the excellent Lindley School Choir who sang a well constructed programme with great enthusiasm, control and skill and finishing with a community choir who had only met that morning under Ken Burton's direction Vocado and the York Chapter house choir demonstrated ensemble singing of the highest quality. Vocado is a young Swedish a Capella group. Two girls and three boys. They managed to fill Leeds Town hall with their cultured singing. Restrained, perfectly balanced and expressive they presented a varied programme with an entertaining professionalism. The Chapter House Choir showed why they are one of the country's leading Chamber Choirs being equally assured with a great Victoria motet and complex contemporary harmonies and rhythms.
Slept well.
Saturday, 25 August 2012
2012 abcd Convention Day 1
This year's Convention is at Leeds Metropolitan University and promises some good sessions.
My journey was interesting. Left home at 11.55 am to drive 8 miles to Newark for the 12.30 train. Normally a 15 minute journey. It took 40 minutes. There was an awful lot of traffic on the A617. My ticket was train specific and I missed it. I joined the queue at the ticket office with the intention of discussing my dilemma. The woman in front was buying a whole year of shopping trips. As the time for the next northbound train approached I decided to take a risk, left the queue, went to the platform and joined the train. For twenty minutes I stood in a lobby staring out the window or checking my train app following the progress of the train I was scheduled to connect with at Doncaster. The ticket inspector never came near. A race developed. The train (Train A) was on was scheduled to arrive in Doncaster at 13.10. The train (Train B) that I was booked on was due to leave at 13.12. Train A left Newark 5 minutes late. Train B was on time. The driver of Train A put his foot down and made up two minutes. Train B lost two minutes. How far away would the platforms be? We drew to a halt at 13.13, where is platform 8? - right next door - no waiting train - has it departed? - no, it hasn't arrived - phew. Waited two minutes, Train B arrived, got on, found my seat and relaxed. The rest of the day would be a doddle.
Once in Leeds I had a bit of a wander and found some lunch. It took me a while to find an appropriate stop to catch a bus up the Otley Road to the University. Checked in ready for the fun to begin. No tea making facilities at the accomodation. Run out of hot water at the exhibition, had to drink coffee.
The opening session was by Paul Mealor. He took us through about half a dozen of his pieces in a very informal and entertaining manner before rushing off to hear a premier in Edinburgh.
Dinner was accompanied by singing of carols in the Yorkshire style and a glimpse of Vocado.
My journey was interesting. Left home at 11.55 am to drive 8 miles to Newark for the 12.30 train. Normally a 15 minute journey. It took 40 minutes. There was an awful lot of traffic on the A617. My ticket was train specific and I missed it. I joined the queue at the ticket office with the intention of discussing my dilemma. The woman in front was buying a whole year of shopping trips. As the time for the next northbound train approached I decided to take a risk, left the queue, went to the platform and joined the train. For twenty minutes I stood in a lobby staring out the window or checking my train app following the progress of the train I was scheduled to connect with at Doncaster. The ticket inspector never came near. A race developed. The train (Train A) was on was scheduled to arrive in Doncaster at 13.10. The train (Train B) that I was booked on was due to leave at 13.12. Train A left Newark 5 minutes late. Train B was on time. The driver of Train A put his foot down and made up two minutes. Train B lost two minutes. How far away would the platforms be? We drew to a halt at 13.13, where is platform 8? - right next door - no waiting train - has it departed? - no, it hasn't arrived - phew. Waited two minutes, Train B arrived, got on, found my seat and relaxed. The rest of the day would be a doddle.
Once in Leeds I had a bit of a wander and found some lunch. It took me a while to find an appropriate stop to catch a bus up the Otley Road to the University. Checked in ready for the fun to begin. No tea making facilities at the accomodation. Run out of hot water at the exhibition, had to drink coffee.
The opening session was by Paul Mealor. He took us through about half a dozen of his pieces in a very informal and entertaining manner before rushing off to hear a premier in Edinburgh.
Dinner was accompanied by singing of carols in the Yorkshire style and a glimpse of Vocado.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
The People's Passion
The People's Passion music, specially commissioned for Radio 4 from poet Michael Symmons Roberts and composer Sasha Johnson Manning.
Around 50 assorted singers assembled in Southwell Methodist Church on April 7th to sing The People's Passion. Some of them had had some rehearsal but it was open to all.
After a brief warm up I got straight in with the Agnus Dei, the simplest movement because it starts with a unison section and it is vocally undemanding. The choir, because it was now a choir, responded well and I was able to enforce some musical ideas that could be transferred to the other movements.
We then tackled the more lively and wordy Gloria. The choir were willing to keep the energy in the rhythm from the word go with only one or two of the pitches going astray. They were also able to put in the dynamic contrast in the middle. I thought that the Sanctus might prove to be the most difficult with the three part ladies holy, holy but there were enough solid readers present to lead it. I did the unison main section first to establish the tempo and tonality, the harder bit then came more easily. Time for break to refresh and get to know the person sat in the next seat.
I wanted the meditative heart of the performance to be a unaccompanied, improvised Were you there when they crucified my Lord. To get everyone back together I just started singing and everyone joined in - very encouraging. Time then to tackle the Easter Anthem. Some of the visiting singers knew this quite well and it is a good tune! Most of the notation was, therefore, pretty accurate. All that needed doing was tidy up some of the ensemble and sing through the few bars of unusual harmony a few times, by which time the tenor soloist had arrived for a run through.
Time for a quick run through of the remaining hymns then a break to turn all the chairs round and create a performance formation. My original thought had been to be creative and have a different standing order for each number but there were too many singers and not much room. The most complicated version of the score involved a cello, two recorders, a trumpet and chimes. We had everything except the trumpet thanks to the good offices of some friends. With performance places established we then ran through the programme in order ready for the audience to populate the balcony of the traditional Methodist church. Sarah Julian, from Radio Nottingham, arrived before the run through recorded some of it and interviewed some of the participants.
An encouraging audience of about 50 came to hear our efforts. It went very well with a lot of good, musical singing and a genuine sense of worship. The Newstead Abbey Singers, a choir that I conduct, were the core of the singers and they performed four pieces during the worship. They rose to the occasion with some very musical singing and offset the immediacy of the main group. Mike Gregory sang a beautiful Love bade welcome in the middle; Mark Hacking, Nick Milburn, Elizabeth Johnson and Gwen Bragg played the instrumental parts and Jeremy Jepson played the organ.
The People's Passion - a meditation for Holy Saturday
Programme:
Hymn: Ride on ride on in majesty
Gloria
Hymn: There is green hill
Newstead Abbey Singers:
God so loved the world from Crucifixion by John Stainer
Drop, drop slow tears by Terry Holt
Sanctus
Mike Gregory:
Love bade me welcome by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Hymn: Where you there
The Easter Anthem
Hymn: When I survey
Angus Dei
Newstead Abbey Singers:
Ave verum by William Byrd
This joyful Eastertide arr. Charles Wood
Hymn: Thine be the glory
A retiring collection was made to defray expenses.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Tamworth part 2
Sue Hollingworth and Liz Garnett presented the second part of our events at The Coton Centre. This was a double stranded event attended by just over 30 people. The emphasis was on training, a very important part of the ethos of the Association of British Choral Directors. About twenty teachers and leaders of singing with young people participated in sessions led by Sue Hollingworth under the auspices of SingUp, the national singing campaign. Liz spent the afternoon with eight conductors on personal development. Both groups came together in the middle of the afternoon to hear from Sue about her work with singers in Scunthorpe and Grimsby.
Everyone had a stimulating and inspiring afternoon and went away with ideas, skills and repertoire to enhance their work with singers over the coming months and years.
I attended the sessions with Liz. Each of the delegates were able to present there own problems and solutions in a very flexible format and I enjoyed the 30 minutes that I shared in discussion with three of them. It was a largely a discussion but there were several moments of singing and two of the delegates conducted pieces that they had chosen. In the final session Liz introduced a peer mentoring scheme that I'm sure that you'll be hearing more about.
A great afternoon.More photos
Sunday, 26 February 2012
abcd Midland Singing Day and Publishers Road Show
Keith Orrell, Gordon Thornett, Ben Lamb, Guy Turner
abcd Midland presented a Singing Day and Publishers Road Show at the Coton Centre, Tamworth. The main presenter was Keith Orrell, who focussed on The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins. Gordon Thornett, Ben Lamb and Guy Turner are composers, living and working in the Midlands, with published works.
150 singers and conductors attended and were rewarded with a very stimulating and exciting day, going back to their choirs with lots of new repertoire and ideas.
Keith began the day with an enjoyable and energetic warm-up that flowed seamlessly into The Armed Man theme. Keith's attitude to the day was to present the attributes of The Armed Man by enjoying the beautiful melodies and exciting moments in some depth while touching on the more difficult moments without labouring them. He was assisted by a DVD of a local performance that was used to great effect.
The Armed Man was broken into three manageable sections by the composers road show.
First up was Gordon Thornett whose speciality is composing Christmas music for performance by the CBSO in their popular annual concerts. The music has to be, therefore, easily approachable by audience and perfomer. Noel (a setting of The First Nowell) and See amid the winter's snow are published by O.U.P. Setting of Rosetti poems are published in Norway and distributed in this country by Music Makers in Tamworth.
Ben Lamb is director of music at Lichfield Cathedral and directs a professional choral group in Salisbury. He has composed and arranged pieces for both groups. His presentation included Set me as a seal - a challenging anthem, The angel Gabriel - a characterful arrangement of the Advent carol and a beautiful setting of Ave Maria. Ben's music is available directly from him: info@sarumvoices.co.uk
After lunch there was more Armed Man with Keith, finishing with the climax of the battle and its aftermath with some telling images from the DVD. It was the task of Guy Turner to lighten the atmosphere, which he did very successfully with selections from his book of nonsense songs Potato Music. This pie's too big is dedicated to all those who have an aversion to foreign food, The homing pigeon on the banks of the Seine is a sad tale about the pigeon who didn't come back and The potato song is an intricate setting of just one word. Potato Music can be ordered direct from Guy or from Windblowers in Nottingham.
The day ended with Keith going through the final numbers of The Armed Man including the Classic fm stalwarts Agnus Dei and Benedictus. I'm always disappointed by musical friends who look down their nose at the work of such as Karl Jenkins because it is not as musically sophisticated as they would like. The thing about The Armed Man is that it "hits the spot". Its message is relevant to the modern audience. The music is enjoyable to sing and is audience friendly. There is a journey through the work that addresses extremes of emotion.
My final message to the delegates was GO OUT AND TRY SOMETHING NEW
The Armed Man is available from Boosey and Hawkes and all good music retailers.
Click here to see more photos of the day.
150 singers and conductors attended and were rewarded with a very stimulating and exciting day, going back to their choirs with lots of new repertoire and ideas.
Keith began the day with an enjoyable and energetic warm-up that flowed seamlessly into The Armed Man theme. Keith's attitude to the day was to present the attributes of The Armed Man by enjoying the beautiful melodies and exciting moments in some depth while touching on the more difficult moments without labouring them. He was assisted by a DVD of a local performance that was used to great effect.
The Armed Man was broken into three manageable sections by the composers road show.
First up was Gordon Thornett whose speciality is composing Christmas music for performance by the CBSO in their popular annual concerts. The music has to be, therefore, easily approachable by audience and perfomer. Noel (a setting of The First Nowell) and See amid the winter's snow are published by O.U.P. Setting of Rosetti poems are published in Norway and distributed in this country by Music Makers in Tamworth.
Ben Lamb is director of music at Lichfield Cathedral and directs a professional choral group in Salisbury. He has composed and arranged pieces for both groups. His presentation included Set me as a seal - a challenging anthem, The angel Gabriel - a characterful arrangement of the Advent carol and a beautiful setting of Ave Maria. Ben's music is available directly from him: info@sarumvoices.co.uk
After lunch there was more Armed Man with Keith, finishing with the climax of the battle and its aftermath with some telling images from the DVD. It was the task of Guy Turner to lighten the atmosphere, which he did very successfully with selections from his book of nonsense songs Potato Music. This pie's too big is dedicated to all those who have an aversion to foreign food, The homing pigeon on the banks of the Seine is a sad tale about the pigeon who didn't come back and The potato song is an intricate setting of just one word. Potato Music can be ordered direct from Guy or from Windblowers in Nottingham.
The day ended with Keith going through the final numbers of The Armed Man including the Classic fm stalwarts Agnus Dei and Benedictus. I'm always disappointed by musical friends who look down their nose at the work of such as Karl Jenkins because it is not as musically sophisticated as they would like. The thing about The Armed Man is that it "hits the spot". Its message is relevant to the modern audience. The music is enjoyable to sing and is audience friendly. There is a journey through the work that addresses extremes of emotion.
My final message to the delegates was GO OUT AND TRY SOMETHING NEW
The Armed Man is available from Boosey and Hawkes and all good music retailers.
Click here to see more photos of the day.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Dream and Reality
 |
| Southwell and Louth Choral Societies in Southwell Minster Martin Pickering - conductor Chris Maltman - soloist |
Southwell and Louth Choral Societies combined to perform Dream of Gerontius in Southwell Minster. It was a fruitful collaboration culminating in a very good performance under the direction of Martin Pickering. the choirs sounded well together and got on well administratively and socially.
Putting two choirs together is a musical risk and as Martin said in rehearsal always involves a certain amount of compromise. Through the hard work of committee members and the musical team it all worked well.
My own involvement was minimal owing to the time I had out before Christmas but it was useful to take a back seat and spectate. What could I learn? It is a learning experience to watch another conductor, how the rehearsal is organised, what it focussed on, how the pressure of time affects the procedure. Watching and listening to the singers which will inform my future rehearsals. I spent some time in the rehearsal sitting amongst the choir - a very interesting experience. As a result I am going to look at how the choir and orchestra can be rejigged to improve the two way communication between them can be improved.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Composition Competition winner
I spent a very pleasant hour on Friday with a very talented and personable young man. One of the members of Southwell Choral Society has put up the money to run a choral composition competition and the aforementioned young man is the winner of the first competition.
The competition is to enable a body of new works suitable for an amateur choral society with modest resources. There were three entries, all of which met the criteria to a certain extent. The winner is Will Handysides, a first year composition student at Trinity College in London. His successfull entry is a setting of Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush for choir and orchestra. The choral parts are well written for amateur chorus with good voice leading and good cues. The orchestra parts are quite demanding but well within the capabilities of the excellent players who populate the orchestras who accompany the amateur choral tradition.
Nothing puts off a conductor more than the constantly changing time signatures (often with 5 or 7s on the top!) that most modern composers litter their scores with. Will avoids that trap - the only 7/8 is at a moment of rest - making the piece easy to conduct with very easily managed tempo changes.
We are looking forward to working on it and to a very exciting performance on Saturday, March 31st in Southwell Minster.
The competition is to enable a body of new works suitable for an amateur choral society with modest resources. There were three entries, all of which met the criteria to a certain extent. The winner is Will Handysides, a first year composition student at Trinity College in London. His successfull entry is a setting of Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush for choir and orchestra. The choral parts are well written for amateur chorus with good voice leading and good cues. The orchestra parts are quite demanding but well within the capabilities of the excellent players who populate the orchestras who accompany the amateur choral tradition.
Nothing puts off a conductor more than the constantly changing time signatures (often with 5 or 7s on the top!) that most modern composers litter their scores with. Will avoids that trap - the only 7/8 is at a moment of rest - making the piece easy to conduct with very easily managed tempo changes.
We are looking forward to working on it and to a very exciting performance on Saturday, March 31st in Southwell Minster.
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