From the King's Road, Chelsea, London

Great to be able to look up all the news and happenings on the website. Good to see a happy committee at work. Tuesday night in London still seems odd with no choir practice.

On Fri 22 May Hugh and I went to hear the Holst Singers - Stephen Layton Cond. at St Martins-in-the-Fields, singing Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Balakiriev, Chesnokov and 3 others. Absolutely fantastic music and what singing. David you would cheerfully have given away all our altos to have those basses sing with us! Deep notes at the bottom of the mix - amazing. Everyone's head up, music held high but flat. AND what some of the men will be interested in is their uniform. The men looked better than the women. Men wore a black shirt unbuttoned and black trousers. The women - a motley collection of tops, skirts and trousers. Anyway, never mind what they wore, it was their singing! We came away buzzing with it. Another thing was the audience size - we would have been disappointed if it had been ours - we think about 400.

This from Carol Montgomery, currently visiting in London.

What are you listening to?

At present I am fixated on Parry's Symphonies No3 and No4. As I sit in the university library I turn up the volume on my headphones, and use my laptop as a CD player. I am trying to keep the chattering hordes from out of my hearing range after all, I must not get distracted!. So amongst the books, papers, pens, pencils and laptop I also lug around 2 or 3 CDs to give me variety.

A moment(?) of procrastination led me to google Parry. He was the man who composed the music to Blake's poem Jerusalem, and which Elgar (who studied under Parry) orchestrated to give it the jingoistic flavour which we oh so loudly sing at the Last Night of the Proms every year. Apparently he composed it in 1916, specifically for a meeting of the “Fight for the Right” women’s suffrage movement being held at Queen’s Hall in London that year. Read more here.

Procrastinating further, I discovered a great obituary published in The Musical Times from 1918. Here is a lovely quote:

Imagine Parry, ‘the greatest British composer since Purcell,’ wasting his precious time, that belonged to the world, over the revision of 3,000 examination papers – an appalling thought! He was born both a gentleman and a musician, and had he been left to himself and his creative instincts he might have done infinitely greater things in his art. But, being placed at the head of the musical profession, Principal of the Royal College of Music, chairman of anything and everything connected with music and musicians (including charities and examinations as aforesaid), his art was clearly stifled in no small measure by the absurd demands of his administrative position...

A composer who counts is rare enough anywhere, any time. Do not try to use him as a mixture of university don, cabinet minister, city magnate, useful hack, or a dozen things besides.

Read full obit here.

We just love it

Life in the Crypt is so much fun we tend to stick around a long time! So far our survey of number of years of membership has revealed the following, as at 2009:

Agnes Hodges, since 1959, 50y
Glennie Jamieson, since 1962, 47y
Carol Montgommery, since 1976, 33y
Jeanette McQuillan, since 1976, 31y
Isla Griffin, since 1978, 31y
Graham Shirley, since 1978, 30y
Gillian Watson, since 1970, 39y
Dulcie Jones, since 1974, 35y
Natalie Baylis, since 1971, with break (no total years given)
Annette Winter, since 1979, 20y
Carol Kempton, since 1978, 31y

I've not done the math; this is as reported. Some had breaks.

And for your entertainment, someone added this entry to the list last night:

Agnes Dei, since 1941, Can't remember - had the lobotomy in '69
(Now who would give a poor wee lamb a lobotomy?!)

Mendelssohn Psalm 42

As the Hart Pants
(As the deer longs for the water)

Modern translations

Anne Thomson has looked up modern Bible translations of the words of "My Heart is Inditing":

Here are two alternative translations:

New Revised Standard Version:
Psalm 45:1,9,11 (despite the fact that the music says vv 10 and 12)

My heart overflows with a goodly theme;
I address my verses to the king.
Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honour;
at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir
and the king will desire your beauty
Isaiah 49:23
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your foster mothers.

Or, in the New International Version:

My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king;
Daughters of kings are among your honored women;
at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.
The king is enthralled by your beauty;
Kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.

So, a little bit clearer? I presume this anthem (of the four) was sung at the point in the coronation when the queen was crowned.

Committee At Work

Here we are working hard, honest,despite the broad grins from everyone!

Deborah and Warren

Jeanette

Heather, Jonathan and David

Warren, Clare, Gisela, and an out of focus Jeanette!

Clare

Yours truly recording who needs to do what task - there's quite a lot of those.

Purcell adds Brightness to Triteness

Here's a lovely story contributed by Stella Cullington:

When we lived in Northern Ireland there was a local musical group formed around the 1980s who produced a record to raise money for the Benevolent Fund of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

It was a most illustrious collection of people, the entire tenor section consisted of Doctors of Music. The record was called "Why was Lloyd George born so beautiful?" The last item was introduced with these words:

Henry Purcell was an undoubted genius. By no means the least of his qualities was an extraordinary capacity for enhancing second rate verse with his music, so much so that shortly after his death the phrase was coined "Purcell adds Brightness to Triteness".

It is not generally known that he wrote at least one valedictory song, this one to Nell Gwynne, as she set out on what might be described as a Royal Progress. This was a companion piece to his Coronation anthem "My heart is inditing" and is titled "My tart is out dating".

Congratulations Tecwyn

NZSO Media Release, 8 May 2009: NZSO Conductor appointed to prestigious European Orchestra and Opera House

The NZSO is proud to congratulate Auckland-born conductor Tecwyn Evans on his appointment as Erste Kapellmeister und stellvertretender Chefdirigent of the Graz Symphony Orchestra and Opera House in Austria.

Following his debut with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra earlier this year conducting concerts with acclaimed cellist Nicolas Alstaedt, Evans is the first New Zealander to have been appointed to such a prestigious position since John Matheson was appointed Erster Kapellmeister in Mannheim, Germany, in 1977.

Tecwyn Evans will begin his tenure in Graz in August 2009 and his first year will see him conduct productions of celebrated operas Die Meistersinger Madama Butterfly, Tosca and The Marriage of Figaro.

Speaking today NZSO Chief Executive Peter Walls said:

"This is an outstanding appointment for Tecwyn and a real coup for New Zealand to be producing stars of such exceptional quality. We were delighted to present Tecwyn to New Zealand audiences this year and we look forward to having him return to conduct the NZSO in 2010."

Born in 1971, Tecwyn Evans studied composition and conducting at the University of Otago, obtaining a 1st class Honours degree and a Masters degree with distinction. In 1997 he took up a Fulbright Scholarship to study conducting at the University of Kansas and was appointed Chorus Master for Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1999 - a position he held for four years.

He has conducted some of the best orchestras in the world and has now established himself as one of the most successful New Zealand musicians of his generation.

The City of Dunedin Choir has a proud history of association with Tecwyn. His late mother, Elizabeth, had been a member of the soprano ranks of the Choir for many years and Tecwyn has conducted some of our recent performances with the Southern Sinfonia, namely:

February 2008 "Last Night of the Proms" concerts
"Gloria" by Poulenc, in May 2007 in Dunedin and Invercargill

My heart is inditing

At last night's rehearsal Michael introduced us to My heart is inditing, the fourth of the Coronation Anthems by Handel. This is an enjoyable sing, but right away we wondered about this word "inditing". What does it mean?

First, here is the context:

My heart is inditing of good matter
I speak of the things which I have made unto the King
King's daughters were among thy honorable women
Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in vesture of gold and the King shall have pleasure in thy beauty
Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and queens thy nursing mothers

The word comes from the Middle English word enditen and means to compose, to write, or to say or dictate.

So, perhaps "telling" or "speaking"?