MEMBERS’ NEWSLETTER August 2011

A NEW SEASON

WELCOME to returning and new members, Patrons and Season Ticket Holders and to the first edition of our new newsletter. The idea of a newsletter was a suggestion to the previous committee from a SCS member, so this is the first attempt to keep our members in touch with what is going on and to improve communications. It will probably be produced once a term with this first edition being a little longer than others. The committee will be glad to have your comments and contributions for future issues.

There have been some auditions with Stephen since the AGM and several are still to come. New members so far are: - June Childs (1st soprano) and re-joining members from 1997-2002 Iwona Moore-Bridger (2nd alto) and Tim Moore-Bridger (1st bass). Welcome to you all and we hope you will enjoy singing with Stratford Choral Society in the years ahead. We all look forward to singing again on September 5th and seeing Patrons and Season Ticket Holders at the EGM or on 19th November 2011.

By now of course you should all have received the following:

1. AGM 2011 Minutes, with the Conductor's full Report (15th July)
2. Conductor’s Rehearsal Schedule (17th July)
3. Chairman's letter re subscriptions (3rd August)
4. Gift Aid Form (3rd August)
5. EGM Notification (3rd August)
6. Nomination Forms for EGM (3rd August)
7. Rehearsal Date Schedule (3rd August)
8. Information for Singers (3rd August)

Contact Sheila Bligh if you have not received all of these communications on 01789 297144 or email: sheila@bligh64.freeserve.co.uk

CONCERT PROGRAMME FOR THE FORTHCOMING YEAR:
19th November 2011 - Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle
17th December 2011 - Prelude to Christmas
24th March 2012 - Bach, B Minor Mass
7th July 2012 - Thomas Helmore Jnr. Celebration Concert

THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT AND LAST COMMITTEE:
Those of you who were at the AGM in June will know that Duncan Fairfax-Lucy who has been our President since 2004 had given advance notice of his retirement. We thank him sincerely for being our President and for all his support in these last seven years and for his very generous parting donation to SCS. The Committee are currently considering who to invite to be the next President – your suggestions are welcomed. Eric Ives had also advised members that this was to be his last year as Chairman and at the AGM several other officers and members of the Committee resigned (Julia Trigg, Colin Nichols, Roger Davies, Anthony Woollard and subsequently Alastair Dodds, Caroline Taylor and Philip Cheshire retired) and on your behalf the new team would like to thank the outgoing committee.
Another sincere thank you to SCS sponsor Tana Travel for their valuable continuing support in the coming season.

INTRODUCING YOUR NEW COMMITTEE:
The new committee elected at the AGM is as follows: Chairman – Tim Raistrick; Vice Chairman – Robert Hornby; Secretary – Elizabeth Hunter; Membership Secretary – Sheila Bligh; Librarian – Mike Barrie; NFMS Representative – Carol Jackson. Committee Members; Diana Brownhill, Ann Lawson, Yvonne Stephenson and John Page. They all live in Stratford, except where mentioned:
Chairman: Tim Raistrick (Bass) Tim has been a member of SCS since 1980, has been Librarian and Treasurer on past SCS committees and has many interests apart from singing - he sings with Holy Trinity Church Choir and Stratford Chamber Choir, and drama - he acts with 5 drama companies in and around Stratford including Second Thoughts and The Trinity Players. He has been Churchwarden at Holy Trinity over several years, is a Trustee of The Friends of Shakespeare's Church, Vice Chairman of both The Stratford Music Festival and Stratfords of The World (UK), Custodial Trustee and Treasurer of Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund (Denne Gilkes was a former member and accompanist of the SCS as well as being the RST's voice coach) and has been a Town Councillor. He works at Tiddington as a Chartered Insurer, heading the team of Motor Underwriters in the Group Corporate Business Department at the Head Office of NFU Mutual.
Vice-Chairman: Robert Hornby (Tenor) Robert joined the Choral Society in 1999 and also sings with Holy Trinity Church Choir and Stratford Chamber Choir. He plays golf and is an arboriculturalist – he says he climbs, surveys, prunes and fells trees!
Secretary: Elizabeth Hunter (Soprano) Elizabeth has been singing with SCS for 34 years this September - John Strickson was her first conductor. Although originally a linguist, Elizabeth taught English both in the classroom and in one to one tuition, retiring nine years ago, when she became a grandmother! This is the first time she has joined the SCS Committee, although she has been Stratford Chamber Choir Secretary and Chairman. She lives in Loxley.
Membership Secretary: Sheila Bligh (Alto) Sheila retired to Stratford after a full career in music education in Manchester & Leeds and joined SCS in 1994, also becoming involved with The Orchestra of the Swan as its Librarian and Secretary of their Friends group. Sheila has been Librarian for SCS on past committees.
Librarian: Mike Barrie (Tenor) Mike has been singing with SCS for three years and has been Librarian since 2009. He works at IBM in Warwick and also finds time to run with Stratford Athletics Club and play percussion with Leamington Sinfonia, a Leamington based orchestra.
Acting Treasurer: Tim Raistrick (Bass)
NFMS Representative: Carol Jackson (Soprano) Carol has been a SCS member since 1988 when she retired to Chipping Campden after a full career in retailing in London and was a SCS committee member in the 1990s. You now see her on the wine bar and selling tickets, as well as editing this newsletter and in court in Cheltenham as a JP!
Committee Members:
Diana Brownhill (Soprano) Diana is one of the Choir stalwarts having been on the committee in several capacities since joining the choir in 1971, including organising four residential tours abroad - Netherlands in 1990, Austria and Bavaria in 1992, the Loire Valley in 1996 and Venice in 1998. She researched and wrote a history of the Society to celebrate its first 150 years published in 1986. A teacher for 40 years, she is a very senior staff member at Shottery Girls Grammar School where we rehearse. She retires in 2012.
Ann Lawson (Soprano) Ann moved to Stratford four years ago, joining the Choral Society at about the same time. She is retired, now, after spending a life-time making music, teaching, training choirs and singing where-ever she has been living, here and abroad. She volunteers at Charlecote Park too.
Yvonne Stephenson (Soprano) is a fairly recent singing member having joined the choral society in 2007 and is new to the committee this year. She says she has sung in several choral societies around the country and practises while mucking out the horses on their livery yard near Clifford Chambers!
John Page (Bass) joined the society in 2000 and has been singing with Male Voice Choirs for 38 years, including regular Competition Festivals. He has been on the committee since 2009 and now heads up the platform team. He is a retired postman.
Music Director: Stephen Dodsworth. Stephen has now completed his 21st year of leading the SCS. Many of you will know he has recently retired as Director of Music from King Edward VI School where he taught since coming to Stratford in 1989 from Pocklington in Yorkshire. Stephen lives now in Bidford-upon-Avon, but is still busy with composing, freelance organ and piano work, Stratford Chamber Choir and as organist on the music staff of Holy Trinity Church.
The Section Representatives are below and if you are unable to make a rehearsal, concert or have a problem, you can call them:
Soprano 1 Hazel Brazier 01789 296633 Soprano 2 Diana Brownhill 01789 295107
Alto 1 Doreen Morris 01789 205511 Alto 2 Norma Lancaster 01789 268962
Tenor Neil Harrison 01789 400079
Bass 1 Peter Pennels 01789 205997 Bass 2 John Page 01789 292914

ACTIVITIES SINCE LAST SEASON AND THE AGM:
Your new committee met in July and was unanimous in the decision to retain the current Music Director for a further 5 years back-dated from 2010, in accordance with the Constitution, thus giving the Society the stability it needs at the moment while a new Constitution is being devised. There has been further activity, with publicity, website, correspondence, preparation for an EGM on Sept 12th when several items of business, unfinished at the AGM, need to be dealt with. A sub-group is working on a revision of the Society’s constitution following the AGM.
Your committee is also very aware that our Music Director has reached a momentous stage in the SCS history - a 21st anniversary. Since being founded in 1836, SCS has had only 15 conductors. Reverend Thomas Helmore, Junior was the first, with a tenure of four years, and after that conductors stayed for varying periods, the majority between 10 and 15 years. The Conductor with the longest tenure was John Strickson who served from 1954-1978, nearly 24 years. So at the moment Stephen Dodsworth enters SCS’s record books as the second longest serving Conductor in its 175 year history! Thanks to Diana Brownhill’s History of the First 150 Years 1836-1886 for these facts. And thank you Stephen for your commitment and dedication over the last 21 years.
The Music Sub-Committee will be meeting in September to plan the programme for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons and Mike Barrie, Chairman of this sub-committee, reports that we now have suggestions from 26 members for 63 different pieces! By happy coincidence, the most frequently requested piece is the Bach B Minor Mass which is already in our programme for this year. There is still time to contribute your requests or suggestions.
MUSIC NOTES from Stephen Dodsworth:
PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE by Gioacchino Rossini 1792-1868
Bon Dieu; la voilà terminée, cette pauvre petite messe.
Est-ce bien de la musique sacrée que je viens de faire, ou bien de la sacré musique?
J’étais né pour l’opéra buffa, tu sais bien!
Peu de science, un peu de cœur, tout est là.
Sois donc béni et accorde-moi le Paradis.
(Good Lord, behold completed this poor little Mass.
Is it indeed sacred music that I have just written, or merely some damned music?
You know well that I was born for comic opera!
Little science, a little heart, all is there.
May you be blessed, and grant me Paradise.)
So wrote Rossini when he had completed his Petite Messe Solennelle. It shows he was under no illusion about where his talents really rested. While the music is clearly that of an operatic composer who, at times, writes music not wholly connected with the real meaning of the text, nevertheless he captures the essence of the traditional approach to setting the mass to music in that, even as far back as Monteverdi, composers have allowed operatic techniques to permeate their music in order to achieve special impact.
Here there is joie de vivre in abundance; wonderful melody writing throughout and clever fugal writing at the end of the Gloria and Credo thrown in for good measure, though in each case the fugues produce an unbalanced feeling because they are so large and weighty in comparison with what has gone before.
Even though there is no sense in which this can be considered liturgical music, it is, as one would expect of Rossini, always a delight to listen to and, indeed, sing! Perhaps one should dissociate oneself from the meaning of much of the text? Just take it and enjoy.
The soloists will be: Sara Whichelow (Soprano), Charlotte Ireland (Mezzo/Alto), Oliver Marshall (Tenor), Tom Sharp (Bass), all of these talented students from Warwick University and the bass, an ex-pupil of KES, with Harmonium and Rachel Bird (Piano).


SUMMER SESSIONS:
Ann Lawson & Sheila Bligh have been leading some of you in an early look at the Petite Messe Solennelle and this seems to be much appreciated by all who attended. In the first round of ‘get-togethers’ the music was introduced, singers received scores with the Stephen’s planned rehearsal schedule for the first eight weeks and listened to a recording of the work.
Subsequent sessions were arranged for the different voice sections for anyone who wanted to continue singing and have additional help in learning their particular voice part. Quite a number of people have bought a CD of the work or a Choraline CD to help them learn the music at home in their own time and space. All this creates confidence when scores are opened on 5th September and we begin rehearsing as a full Choir again.
Stephen will not be having split rehearsal sessions, so Ann or Sheila will be pleased to assist, if as we go through the weeks before the concert on 19th November, you feel you need further help. Reminder - ensure pencils (soft leaded) are to hand for the Conductor’s instructions - the scores of professional singers are usually littered with pencil markings! If anyone intending singing in the next concert has not already got a score and wishes to borrow a library one, please contact Sheila Bligh (01789 297144) as the Librarian hopes to have distributed scores before 5 September so that we can begin singing promptly at 7.30pm.
For the CHRISTMAS PRELUDE, we may be able to use some of the music we rehearsed last year, giving us time to learn something new too. Perhaps some Thomas Helmore?
More on BACH’S B MINOR MASS later.
SCS has been asked to put on a CONCERT AT THE UNITED REFORMED CHURCH IN ROTHER ST ON JULY 7th 2012. This is to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Independent Meeting in Rother Street, (later known as the Congregational Church and since 1972 as the Stratford URC). The eldest son of a former Minister of the Church was Thomas Helmore, Jnr. who was the first conductor of Stratford Choral Society. He was born on 7th May, 1811 and died in 1890 and his particular interest lay in medieval church music, especially Gregorian plain chant. Amongst the tunes he popularised are Divinum Mysterium, Good King Wenceslas and Veni Emmanuel. Interestingly, in London, Arthur Sullivan was one of his choristers. Stephen is currently looking at what we can sing from his compositions with the limited rehearsals that we shall have available to prepare. This concert will also be interesting for us to perform in a different venue and perhaps find new audience potential for the future.
NEWS FROM MEMBERS:
We were really sorry to hear that just about the time of the last concert Patricia Nichols had a fall whilst in London and broke her hip. We are pleased to report that she is now back home and making good progress and Colin hopes that they will be able to make their delayed planned trip back to Canada in September. We are glad too that Diana Brownhill is better after her recent illness. I hear a whisper that there may be music for sale sometime near the beginning of term from Sue Steele’s parents collection – so bring your money. Do members have any other news, milestones, marriage, etc.?
NEWS FROM ‘MAKING MUSIC’, National Federation of Music Societies:
The Making Music Board decided earlier this year to set up a formally-constituted Council (to be called ‘the Making Music Council’) to offer a means of contact between the Board, the Chief Executive and the volunteers who represent the Making Music membership. The Making Music Council will be made up of the Making Music Board, Chief Executive, senior management team, the national and regional managers, and volunteers. The Making Music Council will meet twice a year, with the first meeting being at September’s national conference in Glasgow.
From 1 July 2011 the former West Midlands and North West regions merged to form the new West region and it will be the responsibility of a new paid Regional Manager to be appointed by 2012. Until then Anne Shepherd (former Chair of North West) will be the temporary Regional Leader and Micaela Schmitz will be the Transition Manager until 2012, to help facilitate a successful merger and prepare the region for the new structure. There will be a new West website and events will all be searchable via the website on the 'Events' page.
‘Making Music’ is holding a Symposium in Glasgow on 10th & 11th September on Music and Wellbeing. As the UK’s number one organisation for voluntary music, Making Music feels passionately that the more music people make together, the healthier and happier we all are. Everyone knows that making music is good for you; singing can help with breathing, posture, confidence and state of mind; it is good for the brain and the soul and helps communities get together. Recognising the importance of music to our individual and community wellbeing, this two-day symposium, held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (RSAMD), will explore the breadth of activity and research in this area. For information see Website New West region. The website for Making Music is http://www.makingmusic.org.uk.
HOT OFF THE PRESS
BBC ONE: Songs of Praise is going to be making two television recordings from Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon,. We are waiting to have confirmation of the finer details, but the recordings will take place on two of the following dates: Tuesday 8th, Wednesday, 9th or Thursday, 10th November. The intention is to form a large, combined choir of enthusiastic and experienced SATB singers from all denominations to lead the rest of the congregation and the BBC want us to join them. Keep these dates free while we await further details of the event.
FINAL NOTES:
We shall be pleased to receive comments and ideas from you, so let Sheila or me have any information or news which you would like members to have and I shall try to include in the next Newsletter.
Carol
Carol Jackson, Editor, Members’ Newsletter, cra.jackson@virgin.net