HCS Newsletter Number 102 (13 April 2010)

But hark! joy - joy - strange joy. Lo! heights of night ringing with unseen larks.
Music showering our upturned list’ning faces. The Song of Birds by Isaac Rosenberg

Hi! Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed a great break and are still basking in the glow of a concert well performed and very well received. This term will no doubt present us with rather different but no less exacting challenges that will I’m sure deliver a really enjoyable experience for both our 26 June audience and ourselves. The programme will range from Bach to calypsos with Songs and Sonnets by George Shearing along the way! It really will be a pretty unique event so I hope you will do your very best to ensure that on the day we attract a full church, including many people (including children), who might not normally come to one of our concerts.
I would like to raise two topics with you. Firstly it would be of great help to many of us, not least the Trustees and Derek, to be able to put more names to faces. To facilitate this we would like to add a photo of each member to the password protected members’ area of the web site. Only choir members will have access to this area. Your - hopefully supportive - feedback on this would be very much appreciated before a decision is made as to whether or not to go ahead. One of my regular tasks as chair is to counter-sign cheques; so I see firsthand just how many bills need to be paid each term. About this time last year the Trustees were engaged in a lively debate about the choir’s future finances. Our concern was that we thought it unlikely that we would break even, and that, projected into the future, we were potentially likely to move from relative financial comfort towards financial uncertainty within a few years.
There are of course various ways to raise income. For HCS, members’ subs and concert sales provide the majority of our funds, but these are boosted by a number of other activities. For example, rehearsal refreshments provide a really valuable steady source of income, this year strongly supplemented by our weekly raffle. This term there are high hopes for both the Sale of Promises and the Tour of Hertford, details of which appear elsewhere in this newsletter. Other ideas are also currently under consideration.
At last year’s AGM, after much deliberation, the Trustees decided not to recommend an increase in subscriptions. We are living through difficult economic times and we concluded that raising subs might cause difficulties for some and perhaps cost us members. Just to recover the financial loss of a couple of members requires a fairly steep rise for those remaining. We therefore decided that we would give fund raising a higher profile in 2009 - 2010. If this year’s fund raising events turn out to be as successful as we anticipate then the strategy will have worked and our expenditure on concerts and the new CD will have been covered by our income.
The challenge though is to maintain the impetus. We would appreciate several things from you, including your views on how we should proceed in the coming year - whether or not we should continue to cover our potential shortfall in 2010 - 2011 by raising subs or again through an emphasis on fund raising. The latter, of course, depends on us all selling concert tickets and actively promoting and supporting fund raising activities. It would also be great to have at least a couple more people from the choir – or their families or other supporters – to help us with fund raising. This might range from organising an activity to writing a couple of letters with all sorts of other possibilities in between.
Perhaps most importantly we need to maintain and grow our membership. This not only keeps the choir musically healthy but also provides additional income and potential audience members.
My best wishes for the coming term and a great steel band and choir concert. I look forward to hearing from you.
Keith
keith.hutt@mac.com

Well, I thought that the St John was very good! Yes, we had a few wobbles but they were outweighed by many great things; the first chorus entry in the first movement – wow!; the beginning of Part II, just as I hoped it would be; an animated crowd; splendid contributions from our own soloists; an amazing Evangelist. It was lovely to think that Jeremy started his singing career in the choir stalls where you were. Peter and Julia were a great continuo team. The last chorus and chorale made a great ending. So, many congratulations! Many thanks also to everybody who made it possible to work around the wedding. All went well and we have had a very appreciative letter from the Vicar and Churchwardens of All Saints. Well, I thought that the St John was very good! Yes, we had a few wobbles but they were outweighed by many great things; the first chorus entry in the first movement – wow!; the beginning of Part II, just as I hoped it would be; an animated crowd; splendid contributions from our own soloists; an amazing Evangelist. It was lovely to think that Jeremy started his singing career in the choir stalls where you were. Peter and Julia were a great continuo team. The last chorus and chorale made a great ending. So, many congratulations! Many thanks also to everybody who made it possible to work around the wedding. All went well and we have had a very appreciative letter from the Vicar and Churchwardens of All Saints.
Now for something completely different! Despite best efforts, it is taking longer than I would have liked to get all the music together; that just seems to be the nature of the event. However, I do hope that you are or will soon be excited about what we will be doing. It is very rare if not unique for a British choral society to be singing with a steel band. And the “with” is a key point. I’ve come to realise from recent conversations that the style of the concert could be easily misunderstood. The expectation could easily be that we sing a bit, they play a bit and we might do some Caribbean-style music together. But that is not what it is about. The intention is to have genuine togetherness with both the choir and the band performing together in music from Borodin to Bach to Handel to Scarborough Fair to Mango Walk and so on. You should have a list of the programme with your first set of music. By the way, thanks to all who were involved in setting up and participating in the workshop in January; it was a very worthwhile few hours! We may conclude eventually that this combination is not a viable approach but, for now, I am enthusiastic about it, Mark Cherrie from the band is enthusiastic about it, lots of people from outside HCS are enthusiastic about it, so I do hope you will feel enthused to go out and tell everybody you can. It should have wide appeal to fans of choral singing and fans of steel bands and the curious about what we are actually going to do. That should be enough to fill the church several times over! Having just performed a fantastic piece by the great JSB, I hope you will enjoy a term of another side to our repertoire! Derek Now for something completely different! Despite best efforts, it is taking longer than I would have liked to get all the music together; that just seems to be the nature of the event. However, I do hope that you are or will soon be excited about what we will be doing. It is very rare if not unique for a British choral society to be singing with a steel band. And the “with” is a key point. I’ve come to realise from recent conversations that the style of the concert could be easily misunderstood. The expectation could easily be that we sing a bit, they play a bit and we might do some Caribbean-style music together. But that is not what it is about. The intention is to have genuine togetherness with both the choir and the band performing together in music from Borodin to Bach to Handel to Scarborough Fair to Mango Walk and so on. You should have a list of the programme with your first set of music. By the way, thanks to all who were involved in setting up and participating in the workshop in January; it was a very worthwhile few hours! We may conclude eventually that this combination is not a viable approach but, for now, I am enthusiastic about it, Mark Cherrie from the band is enthusiastic about it, lots of people from outside HCS are enthusiastic about it, so I do hope you will feel enthused to go out and tell everybody you can. It should have wide appeal to fans of choral singing and fans of steel bands and the curious about what we are actually going to do. That should be enough to fill the church several times over!
Having just performed a fantastic piece by the great JSB, I hope you will enjoy a term of another side to our repertoire! Derek

See the review under Concerts/Reviews

As with all choral societies nowadays, we are unable to meet our running costs without fund raising. Joyce (interval drinks) and Jill (weekly raffle) are bringing in a steady stream, but the money is still running out faster than it is coming in, despite our subscriptions. We DO have the wonderful opportunity to sing with superb orchestras and singers, so this cost has to be met. Lots of members help and lift the concerts to a great experience for our audience as well as us; from selling tickets to pouring wine and helping before and after the concert. It has been SUCH a help to have the Scouts doing much of the heavy work so we can focus our energies on the singing on the day. The first sopranos have done their hassock duty for a while.

The list for clearing up after weekly rehearsal has many gaps. If everyone helped once, in a group of 3 or 4, we each need to do only one duty before Christmas this year. Extra help has been arranged for selling tickets, printing labels and stuffing mail shot envelopes, organising the wine and selling CDs but we do need helping hands both on concert day and for the two summer events. If you can help, please speak to the people below or sign up on the sheets around at rehearsals in April.

Concert morning help
Helping the wine organiser setup tables from St Johns for the vestry, meeting room and font areas. 25 minutes in morning. Help setting out bottles and glasses at the stations during or at the end of the rehearsal.

After concert help
Clearing our equipment to the meeting room and restoring the church and vestry. Sorting out the drinks and glasses. Loading into the car(s) for removal. Promises Auction - help with supper Please contact Ruth or Ted Sharp. Hunt Hertford help - starter needed in car park from 10-2, help in Harold Chaplin’s garden, and cake provision on the day. Please contact Hilary Laidler.

First prize (£20) Gina Beck (S1)
Runner up (£10) Trish Olsen (A2)
Answers to the quiz are on HCS website.
1162 quizzes were sold.
After expenses, £1035 was raised for HCS funds.
Thanks to everyone who bought and sold quizzes.
Special thanks to Mauveen Lee who sold 102!
Jill Coggins
(Jill didn’t do badly either – she sold 97… ed)

YOUR PART REP is your first point of contact if you have a question or problem. Please phone him or her if you miss two consecutive rehearsals and let him or her know the reason, because if you miss three consecutive rehearsals with no explanation you are considered to have left the choir!
S1 Jessie Hopkins 01992 550802
S2 Mary Cole 01992 442187
A1 Jenny Lee 01438 817992
A2 Sheila Mander 01992 420114
T Hugh Parry 01992 874329
B Brian Coe 01992 582388

REHEARSALS begin at 7.30pm and end at 9.45pm. You need to attend 75% of the rehearsals to gain a place in any concert. Your part rep will be able to advise if you are unsure, as he or she keeps a register of attendance. Obviously if you arrive or leave at the break you will be given half a mark for attendance – but did you know that if you arrive later than 8pm you are given only half a mark? There may be special circumstances. If this is the case, tell your part rep.

MUSIC is borrowed from the library (unless you sign up to purchase your own copy). Music hire is costly so we agree to return it within a few days of each concert. If you are unable to sing in a concert, you MUST return your music BEFORE the concert. Please try to be responsible for your own music – the librarians have enough to do without having to phone around after each concert to trace missing music. If we fail to return music, we are fined. We feel it not unreasonable to pass any fine on to the member who has failed to return his or her music.

Lot 76 is a Steinberg 5ft 2in grand piano in a rosewood case on square tapered legs. What am I bid? This was the situation at an auction of pianos in London. I went to a similar auction recently with my son, David. He wanted to buy a piano to replace an old worn-out upright that has been in our family for nearly 80 years but which has seen better days. David had been to one of the inspection periods prior to the auction, to try out any that he considered suitable. (I am told he was asked to leave when the site closed as he was still trying out various pianos!).
I have had an interest in auctions, since being involved in them during my working days. So I met David in London on the day of the auction. I have never seen so many pianos at the same time! There were over 130 lots of all different types, shapes and sizes. One version I had never seen before was a conductor’s piano. There were probably about 60 to 80 potential buyers there, all having registered and armed with their ‘bid paddle’, which served as their identity in the event of a successful bid. The auctioneer got the proceedings under way by explaining the basic rules about bidding, the commission charges on a successful bid, possible VAT charges and payment conditions. David was successful in buying the piano he wanted. There was quite a lot of competition for the Japanese uprights in the sale. While David went to settle his account and arrange storage, transport and removal of the old piano, I stayed in the auction room to see what happened to lot 50, the top item in the sale. It was described as ‘Steinway (c.1937) a fine and rare 5ft 1in Model S Grand Piano, in a malachite-veneered & ormolu-mounted art case in a Russian style, together with matching stool’. It was an elegant instrument that needed to be in a palatial setting. I can only describe it as green with (what appeared to be) gold leaf ornament. The auction catalogue listed it with a guide price of £250,000 to £300,000. An invitation to start the bidding was made at £100,000, then at £90,000, then at £80,000. There were no bids, so it was withdrawn from the sale. A great disappointment.
And Lot 76? It was sold for £50!! Was it a bargain? Only the buyer can tell you that.
Ron Skinner

I’ve lost count of the number of times I have sung The Dream with HCS (5 or 6 I think), and each time was a joy. If ever I were asked to choose my Desert Island Discs (unlikely I know but at least I’m prepared), it would be up there at the top. I have my own copy, and it is looking decidedly frayed at the edges to say the least, and the pencil markings - well……

Everyone who has sung a bit of Elgar from time to time knows that the tempo is (or should that be tempi are?) all over the place, and most of the pencil markings in my copy are “watch Derek.” There are obviously “sits and stands” and one obscure marking “move”(more of that later). The sits and stands I have to mark with a date, in case I stand up in the bar applicable to say, the 1992 performance, while everyone else is seated.

Getting choristers to “watch the beat” must be the bane of all conductors, and I well remember Derek resorting to a tee shirt printed, exhorting us to do just that! (Whether it was his idea or that of some whimsical choir member, I don’t know). (You were correct the second time – ed). However, I have a theory that Elgar had a soft spot for musical directors. Indeed he may well have had a few of them whingeing in his ear from time to time. I can see him with his manuscript, muttering to himself “I’ll teach the blighters to watch the conductor. They’ll soon find out what happens if they don’t”

The first season I sang the Dream, HCS did it three times; once with the HSO in All Saints, the second time in the Albert Hall supporting combined school choirs from Hertfordshire, and the third time with Julian Williamson (current Musical Director of the Ware Choral Society) in the Festival Hall. A truly exciting initiation into this beautiful work. With three different conductors, it was important, nay imperative, to watch the beat - doubly so in the final performance where Julian seemed to take the slow bits veeeerrrry slooowwwly, and the fast bits, lightning fast. Luckily, by the time the HCS reached this final rendition, we more or less knew the final chorus by heart, which was just as well, as we wouldn’t have had time to turn the pages, let alone read the music.

A little aside here. I sang with the Ware Choral Society with Julian, for a few seasons, and I recall a particularly vivacious soprano soloist, who sang for us on a couple of occasions. At the rehearsal, following the second occasion, Julian remarked that it wouldn’t be long before we couldn’t afford this soloist any more. Her name was Lesley Garrett….. But I digress.

On another occasion, we were asked to join the Aeolian Singers to sing in St Albans Abbey. An offer you can’t refuse. Sadly my mother died the night before the concert, so it was particularly poignant for me, bearing in mind the theme of the work. Tragically, the musical director of the Aeolian Singers died some weeks after the concert, which was a shock to HCS but devastating for his own choir.

However, here I bring in the marking in my copy; “move”. Those who know The Dream are aware of a celestial semi-chorus of Angelicals, who are usually placed at a high point in the venue. When performing in All Saints, special staging has been erected for this purpose. The Angelicals in this case were chosen from the Aeolian Singers. However, it was decided that this small group of ladies would sit in the main body of the choir, until needed for their solo bit. Then they would quietly move out and up the spiral staircase to the chosen point. When they were finished they would return to their seats in the choir. By chance I was seated in the same row as these choristers, so at the bar marked “move”, my fellow altos and I would shuffle out of the row, to let them out, shuffle back, continue to sing, then wait for the next “move” to reverse the situation. I make no comment on this procedure, except to say, that a little magic was lost from some of the outpourings of the Janet Baker sound-alike.

I hope I will still be with HCS when next they sing the Dream, as I’m sure they will, but I think I’d better start tidying up my copy now. I will leave in my remarks to “watch Derek” but I’ll certainly be rubbing out “move”!
Tricia Olsen

Whether you are new to HCS or have been singing with the choir since it began, there are a few things, which seem to cause confusion. Please forgive us for mentioning them again:
YOUR PART REP is your first point of contact if you have a question or problem. Please phone him or her if you miss two consecutive rehearsals and let him or her know the reason, because if you miss three consecutive rehearsals with no explanation you are considered to have left the choir!
S1 Jessie Hopkins 01992 550802
S2 Mary Cole 01992 442187
A1 Jenny Lee 01992 500626
A2 Sheila Mander 01992 420114
T Hugh Parry 01992 874329
B Brian Coe 01992 582388
REHEARSALS begin at 7.30 and end at 9.45pm. You need to attend 75% of the rehearsals to gain a place in any concert. Your part rep will be able to advise if you are unsure, as he or she keeps a register of attendance. Obviously if you arrive or leave at the break you will be given half a mark for attendance – but did you know that if you arrive later than 8pm you are given only half a mark? There may be special circumstances. If this is the case, tell your part rep.
MUSIC is borrowed from the library (unless you sign up to purchase your own copy). Music hire is costly so we agree to return it within a few days of each concert. If you are unable to sing in a concert, you MUST return your music BEFORE the concert. Please try to be responsible for your own music – the librarians have enough to do without having to ring around after each concert to trace missing music. If we fail to return music, we are fined. We feel it not unreasonable to pass any fine on to the member who has failed to return his or her music.