Choirs - what are you singing at the moment?

I am still buzzing from the experience of doing Carmina Burana last Saturday. We had a choir of about 92 including our local MP.

It's a piece not often performed so there are lot of other singers around who would jump at the chance.

A good small orchestra but with a very full percussion section, the music needs it to do it justice.

My son and partner came up from Sussex and he found himself next to another tenor. He said they both looked at each other and had a "Don't I know you moment." They had both sung in choirs in the Surrey area and had relatives in Cheshire. A small world.

Luckygirl I think there are, four short songs. Scored for SATB

I don't have the music anymore as it was a library loan, but you can buy a copy for £4 on Amazon and other sites so you could have a look at it and get a set of scores on library loan from the usual sources if you want to do it. I think our Cheshire music library had a set.

www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/026359/details.html

I would be interested to know what you think of it of you can get it.

No, we do sing quite a few very obscure pieces, as you may have noticed many american choirs are keen to sing on youtube but they do not have the access to weird pieces of ancient English music that we do! DBH sings with some excellent choirs, but he has no recordings of any of them at all, sadly we don't seem as keen to sing to such a vast audience.

I am fine with sight-reading new music, but I do like being able to hear how a piece should sound as a whole, which is hard to do as part of a choir. Just sometimes I do wish all pieces could be heard/found on the internet.

I do not know this Nellie - it sounds very interesting. Could you tell me a little bit about it, so that I do not invest in something that is not suited to my village choir. For instance....how high do the sopranos go? - is there any complex fugal writing? - are there contrasting movements? - could a mixed village choir manage it (a mixture of competent musicians and complete non-readers)?

Thank you for your help.

Stillhere I have been trying without sucess to find a recording. Do any of your contacts know of one, professional or otherwise. I am glad someone else has heard and appreciates it.

Yes, one of the choirs DBH sings with did it a couple of years ago, very pretty. We had been thinking of doing it with our former choirmaster, who really loves the mediaeval period (as do I) but our new one, although very classically trained, is getting very experimental and wanting us to do really obscure modern stuff in the future, we are only managing to hold him back a little by curbing the amount he is allowed to spend on scores as many are not available through the library.

Still - I shall suggest it to him, I think it would make a good 'filler' for concerts when the main works are too short. I quite envy you, I think next summer we are doing Songs of Africa or something! Heaven only knows what he will have us padding that out with. He got us doing a couple of African things last xmas and I'm really not sure I like that way of singing, although many in the choir do.

Luckygirl and stillhere or anyone else you serious choir music types heard of, or sung Michael Hurd's "Music's Praise" ?
We did it at last July's concert.
I don't think many people have probably ever even heard of it, there are no recordings on Youtube.
It is a small piece with songs taken from Tudor era poetry with writers like Robert Herrick with music suitable to that era.
I really enjoyed doing them full of lovely tunes but it seems they are largely unknown.

This was the poem set to a lovely tune. Circa early 1600s

To Music, To Becalm His Fever - Poem by Robert Herrick

Charm me asleep, and melt me so
With thy delicious numbers;
That being ravish'd, hence I go
Away in easy slumbers.
Ease my sick head,
And make my bed,
Thou Power that canst sever
From me this ill;--
And quickly still,
Though thou not kill
My fever.

Thou sweetly canst convert the same
From a consuming fire,
Into a gentle-licking flame,
And make it thus expire.
Then make me weep
My pains asleep,
And give me such reposes,
That I, poor I,
May think, thereby,
I live and die
'Mongst roses.

Fall on me like a silent dew,
Or like those maiden showers,
Which, by the peep of day, do strew
A baptism o'er the flowers.
Melt, melt my pains
With thy soft strains;
That having ease me given,
With full delight,
I leave this light,
And take my flight
For Heaven.
Has anyone heard of this?

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'll pass the information on to DD.

aprilgrace and there was me about to suggest the Huddersfield Choral Society which is rated as one of the best in the country.
This link might help.
www.choirs.org.uk/home1.htm

Our choirmaster is very young, but incredibly highly qualified and experienced, and forgets that some of us can no longer jump! He would love to get us moving around more, but one of us uses a stick and is threatening to wrap it around his neck the next time he suggests a flashdance!

Our choirmaster is very young, but incredibly highly qualified and experienced, and forgets that some of us can no longer jump! He would love to get us moving around more, but one of us uses a stick and is threatening to wrap it around his neck the next time he suggests a flashdance!

nvella I had a look and I am - that looks brilliant! Lucky you. Our current choirmaster is a bit "proper" - he doesn't like it when we jump around

I am in a choir which calls itself a singing collective and we sing all contemporary rock/pop/indie music mostly by bands I am too old to have heard of but brilliantly arranged and although I wasn't sure at first it's given me a new lease of life singing with a lot of younger people (though there are some grans!). We also do great gigs (yes gigs with a band not concerts!) in venues like the Union Chapel and one coming up in Shoreditch Church (where Rev is filmed). I really love it. If anyone lives near London or Cambridge this is them
thedowsingsoundcollective.com

babs I agree with lucky - you can and you will be surprised at how your voice can improve once you start using it for singing. The first choir I joined was literally called "Sing For Fun" and that was all we did... all comers and all sorts.

We didn't even split into the different voices (soprano, alto etc), the only "excitement" that was brought to the songs was when we did some "call and response" type of songs like "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with the men singing one part and the women the other, and some of the old Gospel spirituals. It truly was a load of fun. Since then I've progressed to a community choir which is still fairly "low-brow" musicwise.

You can!!! Go and give it a try!!

I love choirs just wish I could sing!!!

We're rehearsing hard for our Christmas Concert on 9 December and my favourite new piece is "Pavane for a silent night" by Ravel. It's a lovely piece and good to sing. Recommend it.

Thank you, Luckygirl. I'll pass that on to her. The one in Almondbury may be a possibility as she's not too far from there.

www.naturalvoice.net/index.php?content=choirs&include=yes&pstart=10

aprilgrace - this is a link to the Natural Voice Workshop which supports community choirs. The link I have posted is the result of searching for a community choir in Huddersfield. Hope you manage to find what you want and happy singing!

We haven't started our xmas music yet as we have a couple of other big concerts first, so off the top of my head, Tallis, If ye love me, Zadok, Rutter's For the Beauty of the earth, Ave Verum, Cantique de Jean Racine, Gibbons' Drop, drop slow tears, and a few madrigals. There is more but I have had a chesty infection so have been off for the past few weeks.

At the beginning of November the xmas stuff will start, heaven only knows what though, as we are being presented with new books. There's usually a fair amount of Kirby Shaw and Bob Chilcott and Rutter stuff, interspersed with pieces that have often been written and then largely forgotten, usually for a very good reason, in my opinion.

In my choral society, we have just performed Rossini Petite Messe Solonelle, and we will rehearse Christmas music in the next few weeks, but also start on Brahm's requiem which we are performing in March.

Does anyone know of any choirs around the Huddersfield area? My DD would love to join one again but informed me she doesn't want an " old people's choir" - something more like a community choir.
Where is Gareth Malone when you need him??

It is lovely music - but the words are pretty gory!

Eloethan Mozarts version is really lovely. I sang that for the first time at the singing day. It is not difficult just lovely music.
I think Ave verum is a standard part of church liturgy, so many different composers have had a go at their own musical version to please their patrons.

We are learning Hold My Hand by Jess Glynne, really enjoying it. Starting that Shakin Stevens Christmas song next week, shudder!