Hertford Choral Society- Newsletter 99

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds
sang except those that sang best."

We are all emerging from being immersed in the music of Elgar and Duruflé. I hope you enjoyed the programme that started with the splendid march (Pomp and Circumstance 4) and finished with that mystical chord at the end of the Requiem. There was so much that was good about it all. I was particularly struck by the confident and controlled singing at the opening of the Music Makers – we were indeed making music and not just singing through the notes! We were very well served by our soloists and orchestra. There have been comments about the choir not always being heard clearly. Actually the orchestra was sensitive to the balance issue but when the composer writes all those notes for all those instruments, it’s what the music is all about and was very effective. We had a few of “those moments” but nothing that impaired an otherwise great evening of music. Slightly adjusting Chris Benham’s words in his review – HCS should be proud of what was achieved that evening! I hope you also enjoyed the workshop that was part of the preparation for the performance – and the performance of an organ Toccata with HCS singing the plainsong melody straight from the neumes!
Now we look forward to a change. On 27 June, the first part of the programme will be secular music but all music written for HCS. The centrepiece will be the performance of Two Folksongs (The Rose and Stars trembling o’er us) by Daniel Basford (who wrote the opening piece, BLAST!, for the last Joint Herts Choirs concert at the Albert Hall). This commission is in memory of Ulla Taylor. We shall also give the first performance of new arrangements of more well-known folksongs by Elizabeth Shephard (who sometimes steps in when Peter is not available). In 2003, Douglas Coombes wrote Summer Serenade for us and we shall perform part of that. The remainder of the programme will be from the pens of Rodgers and Hammerstein. A chance to “have a good sing”! We will be joined by John Langley who has great experience in music theatre.

Looking further ahead, it seems to be a great opportunity to take the music from the first part of that programme as the basis of a new HCS recording. So in October / November, the plan is to take just the daytime (10-5) of a Saturday and a Sunday from two weekends a few weeks apart to do it. Today’s technology means that we don’t have to commit to one whole weekend as we have done in the past.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the complete change of styles in this term’s music!

I don’t know about you, but I was personally really pleased with our performance at the recent concert. In the programme notes I suggested that being part of a choir gives some of us the opportunity to achieve musical heights collectively that we could not accomplish individually – at least that’s true for me. I thought the Elgar was particularly challenging, but with Derek’s expert tuition and the help of more accomplished colleagues, we achieved a high standard performance. Certainly the feedback I received from members of the audience was very positive, as also was Chris Benham’s review. What was rather disappointing was the relatively small size of the audience. Practical thoughts on ways we might improve this for our summer concert would be welcome.

Another pressing issue we face is finding a cost effective way to store our collection of music. We are actively exploring possible longer-term solutions, but meanwhile we are having to pay out over £30 a week for storage. Over a year that’s the equivalent of more than 150 side aisle concert tickets. This is a drain on our resources we could certainly do without, so any offers of an alternative means of storage would be greatly appreciated.

Elsewhere in the newsletter there is information about some of our future activities. Certainly the summer concert will be very different in style to our more usual repertoire – it looks good, even if it’s not Handel! There will be the premiere performance of the specially commissioned Daniel Basford work

dedicated to the memory of former member, Ulla Taylor, and other pieces written for HCS.

Plans for the autumn CD recording are now well under way. Recording dates and venue should be available towards the end of April. Possible options for our Christmas performance are currently being considered. That concert is scheduled for 12 December.

Currently a number of other initiatives are also being explored by the trustees – it’s amazing just how many factors have to be taken into account before firm proposals can be agreed – but all being well, details will be shared with you in the next few weeks. Meanwhile I wish you all a very enjoyable summer season.

Keith

Clifton Kelynack 31.5.15 – 19.1.09
Clifton Kelynack was a dynamic and diverse musician. As organist, composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, lecturer and examiner, he was an inspirational guide for generations of musicians.

Born in Beeston, Nottingham, Hilary Clifton Kelynack was educated at University College School and St John’s College, Cambridge, where he became assistant organist to the long-serving and distinguished organist, Dr Cyril Bradley Rootham. In 1935, Rootham developed a muscular atrophy illness but, thanks to Kelynack’s help, Rootham was able to fulfil most of his musical commitments including his conductorship of Cambridge University Musical Society. Kelynack came to the rescue, notably in the 1935 production of Handel’s quasi-oratorio, Susanna, and the 1936 first performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Poisoned Kiss.

In 1936, as Rootham’s illness became more acute, Kelynack, still an undergraduate, was thrust into the national spotlight as acting organist of St John’s. In 1938, Kelynack became organist and choir master at Jesus College. The following year, now married, he undertook wartime duties with the Red Cross.

After winning the Turpin Prize, as a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1943, he became director of music at Monkton Combe School, Somerset. Subsequently he taught at Oundle and Stowe and at Hertford Grammar School (1960-66), after which he became senior lecturer – then head of department - at Balls Park College, a teacher training college. There he helped to create a noted centre of excellence in music education. He also made a significant contribution to the wider cultural community as a conductor of the Hertford Orchestra and the Hertford Choral Society (1961-1972) He was also a highly respected music examiner for many years. His years of devoted service were recognised by the award of an honorary fellowship from Trinity College of Music.

He was one of the finest organists of his generation. His bold and colourful playing was fiery and impassioned, instinctive as well as intellectual. He had a particular liking for Bach and Cesar Franck. As a choral technician, he believed in good style and simplicity in technique. He never hesitated to broaden his artistic palette, most memorably with Constant Lambert’s new composition, the highly idiosyncratic Rio Grande.

Hilaire (as he was known) had a particular feel for the liturgy that allowed him to write well for voices. His anthems, chants, introits, hymn tunes and descants, often written for special occasions, have remained in the repertoire. Rather neglected are some meticulously crafted songs and piano pieces, each cleverly and precisely imagined.

Kelynack was a modest, generous and much-loved musician. Like many organists, he enjoyed things mechanical, notably model railways. While his supreme technical gifts gave his music an unforgettable quality, it
was his humility and natural goodness that shone through to bring such added distinction to a rich and fulfilling life.
This obituary was based on one that appeared in The Times 7.4.09

We are the music makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams
This verse seems to start quite enchanting
I am warming to its theme

But now with questionable ditties
We seem to be constructing cities
In countries that are not our own
And in contravention of the Geneva convention
We are trampling kingdoms do-ow-ow-own
Trampling king – doms - down!

I don't go for this empire building
Or enlisting the resisting to the faith
I thought this was about music making
(I really must object)
This is politically most incorrect!

And today is supposed to be thrilling
But somehow this tune isn't filling
My soul with much joy or much mi-ir-irth
Not much mirth

No! This dirge makes me feel like crying
And burying my head in the earth
And Ni-i-i-i-vea (what?) keeps me sighing ...

Oh! The timing has changed again
I'm getting lost again
And counting - for all that it's worth

We are rushing towards a crescendo
I think that I might have caught up
But on daring to lift my nose from my book
I can tell from the conductor's desperate look
We are about to come... to ... a ... pause
And already goes forth the warning -
Ye who sing in the rest - must - die!

But we, with our counting and singing,
Have made it through to the last
Our souls with high music ringing
Can bury this work in the past

For we have sung “The Music Makers”
Impossible seeming though it may have been
And I have to admit, Mr Elgar,
Your ending was quite serene

A discerning soprano named Jessie
Was averse to the verse of Shaughnessy
She said “Elgar forget it
Don’t bother to set it
To music; it’s morbid and messy”

When I was a member of The Halifax Choral Society, the ladies’ dress for concerts was white – any white dress. Some of the very elderly ladies (who always sat in the same places together) (gosh – really? – ed) wore old-fashioned satin dresses, a little altered but plainly their wedding dresses! Some of us, newer, members bought or made her own, as I did. At Christmas concerts we wore tiny sprigs of holly pinned to our frocks.
But what I really wanted to say is that I learned that some time in the 1960s, (before I joined) the society had advertised for a new chorus master. Of the two applicants, a well-known local organist was chosen. The rejected applicant, a younger man, was not known to the choir. His name was Mr Malcolm Sargent…….

Sheila Pettman

A ticket for a concert costs between £10 and £15, sometimes less. Compare this with:
A pint of beer and a glass of wine per week: £5
A ticket to a cinema: £6
A ticket for a football match: er – no idea
A meal out with wine: £20 if you’re lucky
A ticket to a show in London: a lot!

So – taking part in or listening to live music is a recession-busting thing to do. There are additional benefits; meeting new people, making new friends, opportunities to learn exciting music, performing music (as a non-musician, with nil instrumental skills this is mind-blowing – ed), and pursuing a common goal. Research shows that musical activity – particularly singing – is good for you. Participating in making music must be one of the best ways to alleviate the daily stress, particularly when economic times are tough.
But then – you all know that already. Aren’t we all lucky!

“nothing remains of that venerable building but blackened walls”

As Anglican churches go, All Saints' Hertford is relatively modern; the church in which we sing today is little more than a century old. It is not known when the original church was built on the site, but it was certainly re-built in the 15th century; it was mentioned in Domesday and the first recorded vicar was in 1248.

The church was enlarged “for the better accommodation of the parishioners” in 1824 and extensive alterations were made in 1872. The organ was reputed to be one of the finest in the country and noted for its “sweetness of tone”.

as it was...

Shortly after 5 o'clock on the morning of Monday 21 December 1891, George Betts, a baker leaving his house in All Saints' churchyard to go to work, noticed flames coming from the roof on the north side of the church and quickly alerted the policeman on duty, P C Gardener. The constable himself had passed by at 3 am and seen nothing amiss. The fire brigade was soon on the scene but was hampered by the difficulty in getting a good supply of water because of a sharp frost. By then the fire had taken hold and the roof was alight. Despite the men’s best endeavours, the fire raged on and was visible for many miles, the heat so intense that the lead roof melted and the peal of bells (being one of only two peals of ten in the county) poured “in molten streams down the walls on to the floor of the porch below”. By 8 am the steeple had crashed to the ground and little remained but the smouldering walls. Some of those who had gathered to gaze on the sad sight were reduced to tears.

As soon as was practicable, the vestry door was forced open and the iron plate chest moved to the vicarage. A burglary the previous week had prompted parish officers to remove the valuable plate from the iron chest and place in it, instead, the oldest parish registers. The original books dated from 1598 but also contained copies of entries from an older register commencing in 1559. Although badly charred, the books were salvaged and repaired; had it not been for the burglary these ancient documents would certainly have gone the way of the modern registers (dating from 1862), which were destroyed in their wooden chest.

Malcolm Heywood, organist at All Saints and conductor of Hertford Choral Society, also suffered a serious loss in the fire; his large collection of organ music was completely destroyed along with several manuscripts and a manuscript copy of a new psalter on which he had been working for some considerable time. The psalter, it seems, was almost complete, needing only the 10th and 23rd days of the month to be added before being sent to the printers.

The cause of the fire was believed to be entirely accidental. Both stoves had been lit for the convenience of those coming to do the Christmas decorations, and it was thought that the heat from the two flues caused the roof beams to ignite, the flames being fanned by a strong draught.

...as it is.
The Reverend T Lingley soon began to receive letters of sympathy from all quarters, but others were quick to cash in. Elsden & Son placed an advert in the Hertfordshire Mercury offering photographs of All Saints' Church “as it was, as it is” from 6d to £2.2s and the Mercury itself published a one penny “Account of the fire and destruction of the monuments”. Arrangements were made for the Christmas service to be held in the Great Hall of Christ's Hospital and it was hoped that future services could take place there too. However, the school felt that it should maintain its usual quarantine from the town in case illness broke out amongst the pupils on their return from the Christmas holiday. From January 1892, services were held at the Corn Exchange, the council chamber was used for

vestry meetings and, in April, Malcolm Heywood was despatched to London “to procure an organ which would be suitable for the services at the Corn Exchange”.

Although saddened by the loss of the cherished building and nearly all of its ancient monuments, the Reverend Lingley expressed a view generally held that “the architecture of the old parish church was unsightly and wanting in architectural beauty”. Fortunately it was insured and on Saturday 2 January T J Sworder, local agent for the Sun Fire Office received a cheque for £4,200 – the total sum for the church and its contents - which he duly handed to the vicar and the churchwardens. However, this was not nearly enough to erect a new church, and an “Influential Committee” was formed to raise £12,500. At the beginning of March a Building Fund Concert at the Corn Exchange, for which Malcolm Heywood lent and played his piano, raised £50. More fund-raising events followed, including a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah by the East Herts School of Music and Choral Class.

Donations poured in, the donors perhaps encouraged by the regular publication in the Mercury of their names and the sums donated. Among the significant donors were such names as Abel Smith, Sworder and Longmore, but there were more humble gifts too, such as the £1 donated by a domestic servant. By December 1892, just one year after the fire, a total of £6,735 had been raised – over half the target.

In March 1892 a number of ecclesiastical architects were invited to submit portfolios of their work to be exhibited at the Shire Hall. The firm chosen was Paley, Austin & Paley of Lancaster whose head Edward G Paley had attended Christ's Hospital. The foundation stone was laid in March 1893 and the new church was consecrated in February 1894 – just over three years after the disastrous fire. The tower was not added until some years later. Perhaps not surprisingly the Lancaster architects chose a red Runcorn sandstone for the new building, brought by rail to Hertford, and some felt that the new church looked out of place, more typical of the churches of northern England.

Apart from the charred registers, very little could be salvaged from the old church; what remained of the bells was so badly damaged, it was sold for scrap. However, two 15th century memorials were rescued; one a brass memorial to the head chef of Queen Katherine (widow of Henry V), aptly named John Hunger, who had died in 1435. All that survived were the feet of the figure and the inscription; it is the oldest memorial in the church, and now mounted on the wall of the north transept.

And so with the loss of All Saints went the last remaining ancient church in our county town. (St Leonard’s, Bengeo, was not then part of Hertford). The church of St Andrew's was rebuilt in 1870; only the 15th century north doorway was retained. The fragments of the old church of St Mary the Less, consisting mainly of a 13th century window, now forms a drinking fountain erected at Old Cross and the church of St John was demolished when the parish was united with All Saints in 1638, its name being given to the church hall.

Next time our performance is punctuated by the wail of a siren, just remember ......

Photographs reproduced with kind permission of Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS). The full account of the fire (Hertfordshire Mercury Saturday 26 December 1891) and the parish registers of All Saints' can be viewed on microfilm at HALS.

Sheila White

Immoral, impossible, God only knows
How tenors and basses, sopranos, altos
At services on Sundays are rarely the same
As those who on Friday to choir practice came.

Unready, unable to sight read the notes,
Nor counting, nor blending, they tighten their throats.
The descant, so piercing, is soaring above.
The melody, only a mother would love.

They have a director but no one knows why.
No one in the choir deigns to turn him an eye.
It’s clear by his waving, he wants them to look
But each of them stands with his nose in the book.

Despite the offences, the music rings out.
The folks in the pews are enraptured no doubt.
Their faces are blissful; their thoughts are so deep.
But it is no wonder – for they are asleep!

(The above was spotted in Soham Church by Mary Gregg’s sister but at least two other people gave me a copy – ed)

It’s Spring, an Simmer’s comin oan,
The frost an snaw will shin be gone
Or so the wee birds richtly hope,
That heat an plenty will gie scope
Tae raise a wee bit brood o chicks
In hames made oot o moss an sticks,
But they, lik me, are fair heart sair
When Jack Frost’s breath is everywhere
An aw thir efforts are in vain
An there’s nae choice but stert again.

Choral by Shawn McBurnie

With woodwinds I haven't a quarrel
And I don't think that strings are immoral,
But if there are choices
I'd rather hear voices:
My favourite arrangements are choral.

Ken Edmonds suggested the competition for what SATB stands for. There was the usual underwhelming response but these are the best – six of which were suggested by Ken! (The other six of his suggestions were deleted!)

Shoot all the basses
Sing all the black notes
Smile at the baton
Sags at the bottom
Sowff Artford Thingymajig Band
Strepitoso are the basses

But the prize goes to the Rev David Mowbray for:-

Salvation Army Trumpet Blast

HCS’s esteemed secretary, Christine Muskett (S2) will be cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats during July, in aid of the charity Changing Faces. She would welcome any sponsorship. It's approx 1,000 miles and will take three weeks. (Come on everyone – that must be worth sponsoring; that will be quite a feat!! - ed)

BRA (back row alto): Auntie Di - what summery items will we be singing in the summer concert?
Di: I think the programme includes songs by that nice Douglas Coombes from his composition, Summer Serenade.
BRA: I hope we do Stars of the Summer Night. That was my favourite.
Di: …and a new commission from Daniel Basford.
BRA: Will it involve trumpets and percussion like Blast!? If so, I must bring the ear plugs. What else?
Di: Some Rodgers and Hammerstein numbers including something from Carousel.
BRA: Ooh – my favourite. O – hang on – I hope it’s not the one I’m thinking of.
Di: What’s that then?
BRA: Please let it not be June is busting out all over….

Sadly, Judith Gera (S2) died on 14 April after a long illness. Her funeral will be on Thurs 23 April, 2pm at Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo.

Chris Taylor married Matt Stuart on 4th Dec 2008.
But Matt died on 2 April 2009 after a long illness. A celebration of his life will be on Thurs 23 April 2pm at Harwood Park Crematorium, Stevenage.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught
For auld lang syne.

Note: ‘fere’ is friend and a ‘gude-willie waught’ is a good-will draught

HCS Newsletter Number 99 (21 April 2009)