Newsletter Spring 2012
Last term
October: HMP Huntercombe. Thanks to Nicola Elmore not only for suggesting that we put on a concert for those in the prison, but also for making most of the arrangements. The concert items were taken from the repertoire of music sung by the Chamber Choir in Harrogate this year and so we could only include singers who had been on that trip. It was a very rewarding experience for us all, especially talking to our audience in the interval.
November: Mahler 2 with Oxford Symphony Orchestra. The choral element in this work is quite short, coming right at the end of the last movement, but it was enjoyable to take part alongside singers from Oxford Harmonic Society and other choirs in a packed Oxford Town Hall.
And finally to December’s concerts, the culmination of a whole term of singing and playing such delightful music which most of us were probably unfamiliar with in September. There were many favourable comments from the audience about the programme itself which they thought was well-planned and also about the scarves which they liked. Thank you all, sopranos and altos, for entering into the spirit of things with such goodwill, and a special thank you to those who thoughtfully brought a spare scarf or two to lend to others. “Technically assured, with clear diction, crisp entries and endings, and secure intonation” were the words Nicola Lisle used in the Oxford Times to describe the performance. Her full review can be seen on the noticeboard, or you can read it online in the Oxford Times
Attendance was really good last term, despite all the coughs and colds that were about. This was particularly noticeable at the concert weekend when hardly anybody was absent. A reminder: If you do have to miss any one of these three nights, please talk to Paul about it first before marking it on the register.
Barbara (Pix) would like to record her thanks to Mary Jo Little (not a member) who has been helping her distribute publicity in Woodstock for the past few years. Mary Jo is now going back to Canada for good in March to be near family in Toronto.
Spring term: Concerts Friday 30th & Saturday 31st March
Choir rehearsals start on Thursday 5th January and orchestra rehearsals on Tuesday 10th January.
The works that Paul has chosen for this term are all by English composers and were all given their first performance in the first half of the 20th century. There are other links too: Edmund Rubbra, Gerald Finzi and Herbert Howells moved in the same musical circles, and Rubbra, Finzi and the poet Edmund Blunden were lifelong friends as well as professional associates. The poem For St Cecilia was one of several by Edmund Blunden that Finzi set to music (another being To Joy, the name of Finzi’s wife). St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, is the ‘delightful goddess’ of the first line, and the composers Merbecke, Byrd, Dowland, Purcell and Handel are singled out for special mention. Ben Segal, who last sang for us in 2007 in The Kingdom, will be our tenor soloist.
We didn’t have much time to get to know Edmund Rubbra’s motet The Morning Watch last term, despite having the vocal scores in advance, so we now have to get working on it in earnest. The words are by the 17th century poet Henry Vaughan whose love of nature has been compared with Wordsworth’s. Neil Swindells has arranged for Rubbra’s son Adrian Yardley to come to one of our rehearsals to talk about his father’s music, and for Julian Pattison, former English teacher and now working for Cambridge International Exams, to give us an explanation of the poetry. Please note that the date of the talk has been changed and is now Thursday 9th February.
Herbert Howells’s setting of the ballad Sir Patrick Spens was composed in 1917, but it was lost for many years and not heard in recent times until 2006. The role of Sir Patrick, who is sent on a hazardous mission to Norway by the King of Scotland, will be portrayed in typical bravura style by Quentin Hayes, whose name always comes to mind for our seagoing ventures (Stanford’s Songs of the Sea in 2006 and A Sea Symphony last May). We may need some coaching in the Scottish dialect for this piece, although Quentin says it’s more Border dialect than Scots.
The orchestra’s separate contribution to the collection of English music is the Wand of Youth Suite No.2. It has six movements, all based on tunes Elgar wrote to accompany a childhood play that he and his brothers and sisters put on for their parents. Forty years later he reworked the music for full orchestra for performance at the 1908 Three Choirs Festival with him conducting.
Subscriptions and Gift Aid – advice from our Treasurer Richard Sills
The new guidance from HM Revenue and Customs requires us to judge how much of our conductor’s time with us is devoted to teaching (i.e. done for the benefit of members) and how much is in preparation for a performance (i.e. done for the benefit of the public). The WMS committee has reached a judgement on this, and the outcome is as follows: Of the £65 annual subscription, you should treat £61.33 as being eligible for Gift Aid (the remaining £3.67 being ineligible) so please use that figure on your annual tax return. In the case of orchestral members no such factor applies and you should treat the full £45.50 you pay as being eligible for Gift Aid relief.
Summer 2012
Concerts Friday 6th & Saturday 7th July.
First choir rehearsal 3rd May, first orchestral rehearsal 1st May. Half-term 4th - 8th June.
Mozart: Regina Coeli (K.127), Fauré: Requiem and Schubert: Symphony No.8. To mark
the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee we will end this concert with The National Anthem in
Benjamin Britten’s arrangement.
Chamber choir trip to Northern Ireland 2012: Wednesday 18th to Sunday 22nd July
55 people have signed up for the trip, of whom 46 are singers. For once, those who
are flying will not have too early a start. The coach from Woodstock will leave
at 10 am in good time to check in at Birmingham for the 2.40 pm flight to Belfast
City Airport. A detailed itinerary will be given to everyone nearer the time. The
balance is due at the beginning of June.
Autumn 2012
Concerts Friday 14th & Saturday 15th December.
First choir rehearsal 13th September, first orchestral rehearsal 18th September.
No rehearsals in weeks beginning 22nd and 29th October. A Russian programme: Tchaikovsky:
The Snow Maiden, and Mussorgsky: St Nicholas Mass, an arrangement by Philip Lane
of some of the composer’s operatic music combined with the words of the Latin Mass.
On to the future in 2013
There are some exciting things coming up which Paul is working on right now. We are planning to take part in a project in Spring 2013 to mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth, as many other organisations across the country are doing. Nicholas Cleobury is co-ordinating the Oxford project which will include performances, talks and workshops. In our programme we have three King Arthurs: orchestral suites by Britten and Elgar, and excerpts from Purcell’s opera of the same name. The dates are Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd March.
WMS website
After creating, maintaining and recently revamping our website, Tom has now handed over his responsibilities to Will Clark. Thank you, Will, for taking this on. The site name remains unchanged: www.woodstockmusic.info
A happy New Year to everyone!
Evelyn Hendy, Secretary