Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963
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2021-v1 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. STANLEY BRUCE Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 Cover photograph – Hall, Russell Male Voice Choir (1922 to 1923 season) courtesy of the Leopard Magazine. Names as per the Leopard Magazine (June / July 1985). Front row, from left: Messrs. Petrie, Edwards, Wright, Lamb, Gillanders, conductor George Innes, Mitchell, Wilson, Watt, McLeod. Second row, from Ieft: Messrs. Grant (1st ), Ross (3 rd ), Morris (4 th ), Bothwell (6 th ), Imlach (9 th ). Third row, from left: Messrs. Lyall, Scott, Murdoch, McIntosh, McPetrie, and Crichton 2nd right, Robert Booth extreme right. Back row, from left: Messrs. McRobb (1st ), Paul (2 nd), Shirrar (4 th), D. Flett (5 th ), second right is George Alexander, principal bass at St Machar’s Cathedral. This book has been published on an entirely non-profit basis and made available to all free of charge as a pdf. The aim of the book is to make the history of the Hall Russell Male Voice Choir available to a wider audience. If you have any comments regarding this book, or any further information, especially photographs of the choir members. It would be great to include some more, and since this is an electronic edition it will be possible to update and include any new information. I can be contacted at [email protected] If printing this book, it is best printed in A4. 1 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 HALL RUSSELL MALE VOICE CHOIR, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. 2 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 © Copyright Stanley A. Bruce. 2021. Copyright Terms You are free to digitally distribute or display this book in whole; or as individual pages, subject to the page header being retained on each page. Whilst I have taken great care in preparing this publication, I have of course relied on some previous historic information by others. Where conflicting information was found, I have added what seemed the most credible, at least to my mind, I therefore accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions. 3 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 HALL RUSSELL MALE VOICE CHOIR, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. By Stanley Bruce 4 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 Contents Page Introduction. 6 Some Basic Classical Music Definitions. 9 Abbreviations. 9 Venues Played / Good Causes Supported. 10 Competitions / Prizes and Awards Won. 21 Bonnie Lass o’ Mine (Duet). 22 Timeline. 23 Aberdeen and Region Oral Heritage Association (AROHA). 232 Bibliography. 232 Acknowledgements. 232 Websites. 232 Appendices A Songs They Sang. 233 B Names of Choir Members. 238 C Beltona Recordings of the Hall Russell Male Voice Choir. 242 D Dancing Davie. 243 5 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 Introduction. Firstly, I must point out I have never been in a choir and I can’t sing that well. The only connection I have to the Hall Russell Male Voice Choir is that I worked at Hall Russell Ltd., Shipbuilders and Engineers, Footdee, Aberdeen between 1980 and 1991. The company was founded as Hall, Russell & Co., in 1864 and ceased in 1992. During my research into “The Shipbuilders of Aberdeen” I came across many times reference to the Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, but I originally had no intention of producing a volume in their honour as part of my Aberdeen shipbuilding library. I knew of the Choir, first hearing of them at an Aberdeen and Region Oral Heritage Association (AROHA) event organised by the University of Aberdeen celebrating Hall Russell’s, hosted in 2006 in the Adelphi, Aberdeen. I recall that the AROHA organisers had a very old recording (as I remember sounding rather scratchy) of the Choir which was played at the meeting. I have since discovered that the choir made some other recordings, also recorded by the Beltona Recording Company in 1932, see appendix for details. The choir was established in 1918 after the conclusion of the First World War by shipyard workers of Hall, Russell & Co., Limited , initially I believe with around 35 members. In the 1920’s the numbers rose to between 50 and 60 members. According to the Aberdeen Evening Express 14 th April 1975, the choir disbanded in 1963, however the last evidence of the choir performing in the community that I found was a concert held on the 9th May 1958, when they performed in the Salvation Army Hall, Cross Street, Fraserburgh. (This hall has since been demolished, although I do personally remember being in it in the early 1970’s attending Judo and Karate lessons). The information in this volume has been gleaned from local and national newspapers, with many of the early articles giving a considerable amount of detail regarding the members of the choir and songs they sang. I believe this is thanks to choir member Forbes L. MacIntosh who appears to have written many of the articles; we also need to thank the newspapers, especially Aberdeen Journals for printing his detailed reports. Shipyard workers were men of many talents, some in their free time played sports such as football, bowling, or golf, others sang. The building of a ship was a team effort, you could not do it alone, choir singing is the same, it was the team that sang led by the conductor, to be a good choir you first need to be a good team. 6 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 The choir had disbanded long before I worked at Hall Russell Ltd., but I can remember work ongoing on a ship under construction and the odd worker breaking into song. I imagine in the days of the choir that there had been many outbursts of song during the working week, perhaps even a bit of a choir practising, competing or even singing along with members of Alexander Hall’s choir in the neighbouring shipyard. The Hall Russell Male Voice Choir are reported as having broken into song at Perth Railway Station in 1936 and all the station staff stopped work to listen. The members of the choir were a very charitable lot and played many concerts throughout the North-East with proceeds going to all sorts of good causes. They must have raised many thousands of pounds. They also sang in Duthie Park and Hazlehead Park at free concerts during the Summer months. Its therefore appropriate that this publication is also available free of charge. In 1932, conductor Mr George Innes responding to a comment made regarding the great philanthropic work they were so consistently doing and declared that “his men experienced as much happiness in bringing sunshine into drab lives as in exercising their talents on the concert platform.” The members of the choir were so kind-hearted that it is recorded that one night in 1930 after playing a concert in Tomintoul on their way back to Aberdeen on the bus they took the time to stop in the early hours at an invalid’s house in Insch and sang some partsongs aside her bedroom window. A similar story was told in 1932 of another invalid lady at Banchory who was unable to attend the concert due to illness, the choir after the concert sang in her garden, George Innes the conductor using his lit cigarette in the darkness of the night as his baton. At Christmas they are known to have cheered up patients when they sang in the Aberdeen hospital. The choir played in towns and villages throughout the North East of Scotland in all seasons and it is reported that in 1931 after playing a convert at Grange, near Keith they got lost in a blizzard and took a wrong turn on the way back to Aberdeen and ended up in Banff. I read an article in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, Monday 18 th June 1923, that Sunday concerts in the city parks attracted 25,000 of a crowd, compare this to the recently opened P&J Live (also known as The Event Complex Aberdeen) even with a much improved capacity compared to the AECC, it can still only cater for 15,000 maximum. Hall Russell Male Voice Choir you could say were the popstars of their day. The Choir featured on the Radio on many occasions with special broadcasts nationally by the BBC. 7 Hall Russell Male Voice Choir, Aberdeen, 1918 to 1963. Stanley Bruce, 2021-v1 For me personally, it would have been interesting to know the trades of the singers, but unfortunately, I did not find many details on this. George A. Innes, conductor, was a very busy man as he also conducted other choirs, including the Ferryhill North Church Choir for twenty years, during which time they won many prizes. His occupation was senior music master to Aberdeen schools, and was ‘well kent’ in and around Aberdeen In the city of Aberdeen, the shipyard of Alexander Hall & Co., Footdee, also had a male voice choir, which is also mentioned briefly in this book. “These choirs specialised in short works, including sea shanties, Scottish ballads, choruses from longer works, and so on, and were in great demand for concerts in Aberdeen and throughout Aberdeenshire… and almost have legendary fame throughout the North-East of Scotland .1 . “An interesting story is told of a visit of Hall, Russell’s Choir to an Aberdeenshire town. After the recital the conductor passed across the hall.