February 2008 Issue 27 Hemiola St George’s Singers INSIDE THIS ISSUE: MAKING MONEY TO MAKE MUSIC Sounds like Russian 2 BY SALLY SMITH Elgar & After—review 3 Music for health 4 Making Music, the National Singing Day 2008 5 what they’ve done for years. In Federation of Music Societies, order to remain strong and in- The Speech of Angels— 6-7 was founded in 1935 to support deed grow Making Music is concert preview and champion voluntary music. encouraging groups to think There are now over 2,500 mem- outside the box and take a fresh St George’s Singers 8 ber groups nationally and we look at the things we do al- news have over 250 here in the North ready. West, ranging from large sym- Sally Smith, North West Regional There are increasing amounts Christmas highlights 9 phony orchestras to village Development Officer, Making handbell ringers, youth choirs of grant monies out there to Music to community jazz bands. support community develop- The Cheshire Consort 10 ment projects, work with the deed travel the world singing The organisation lobbies hard older generation, social inclu- together. on behalf of the members at sion and involvement of young national and local levels and Elijah’s return 11 people. Although these pots of In whatever shape or form our also offers a great support money don’t traditionally have ups and downs come, we all mechanism to individual ‘arts and culture’ written all have one thing in common: the groups. over them, if we take a good love of music making. ST GEORGE’S SINGERS I read Joan Bakewell’s article in look at ourselves we are more Making Music wants to give PRESIDENT: your last Hemiola newsletter than likely hitting most of these you the inspiration and support with interest. Luckily Making targets already without distract- Joan Bakewell CBE to do whatever you want, and Music is in the fortunate posi- ing too much from the true VICE PRESIDENTS: focus of our art. with the enthusiasm and quality tion to have had their ACE SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: of singers across the North Sue Roper (Arts Council of England) fund- • Briefly highlight your point of interest here. There are also wonderful op- West, our choirs should never Mark Rowlinson ing secured for at least the next • Briefly highlight yourStephen point of interest here.Threlfall portunities for choirs through be short of members, audiences three years. However, there is • Briefly highlight yourStephen point of interest here.Williams workshops, collaborations and or money! • Briefly highlight your point of interest here. no doubt that recent arts budget concerts as well as regional and MUSICAL DIRECTOR: cuts, coupled with soaring national events. Although not Why not join us on Saturday Olympic costs contribute to the always direct forms of income, Neil Taylor 1st March in Lancaster for a frail and damaged support sys- the publicity, local recognition ACCOMPANIST: Gospel Workshop led by the tem which is now directly af- and individual development Jeffrey Makinson fecting voluntary music groups. within the group often reap the legendary Scott Stroman. Costs £15. Details from As North West Regional Devel- greater rewards. [email protected]. opment Officer for Making Registered Charity no 508686 Choirs across the North West Music I have met a wide range Member of Making Music, the National have a unique ability to net- of groups. Some seek innova- For more information about Federation of Music Societies work, support each other and Making Music visit tion and development; others share members, collaborate for www.st-georges-singers.org.uk www.makingmusic.org.uk just want to carry on doing performances, events and in- Page 2 Hemiola GORTON REPEAT? St George’s Singers’ forthcom- who rang and emailed for tick- venue and our existing concert Want to know how ing concert at Gorton Monas- ets, particularly those who loy- programme.” Rachmaninov played tery has met with such interest, ally support the Choir on a Anyone wishing to have ad- those amazingly that tickets were sold out early regular basis, but the capacity vance notice of any future per- in January. of the Monastery is limited, and difficult piano formances at Gorton Monas- it is simply not possible to Ticket Secretary Dave Francis tery can register with the pieces? Just Google squeeze any more people in. ‘Rachmaninov Big has set up a waiting list, in case Choir’s Mailing List on our some tickets are returned, but “The Choir has therefore de- website, or by contacting the Hands’. fears that hundreds of people cided to investigate the possibil- Publicity Officer (see back page will be disappointed. Chair ity of singing again at the Mon- for details). Anne Francis commented, “We astery later in the year, depend- hate to disappoint all the people ing on the availability of the S OUNDS LIKE RUSSIAN (OR FRENCH, OR …..) It’s Tuesday evening rehearsal All these sounds can be tran- • ŋ the nasal sound at the for Rachmaninov Vespers, well scribed in a standardized way end of ‘song’ after the tea break. Tonight by the International Phonetic we’ve had expert tuition in Alphabet (IPA), in which one • œ the vowel sound as in Russian pronunciation (well, symbol equates to one sound. the French word ‘oeuvre’ Old Church Slavonic actually) Roman alphabet characters are • y the vowel used in French from Nataliya Kompaniyets- used for common sounds, with and German that is shaped Jouri, principal soprano with new symbols for less usual by the lips as ‘u’ but is the Kiev Opera. sounds, or to indicate intona- sounded like an ‘i’ tion and other nuances of Nataliya bringing the sound of • ɔ : the long vowel in the Russia to St George’s Church Hall When Nataliya speaks, the speech. word ‘born’. If it has a ~ sound of the wind flowing over it, it turns into the across the Russian steppes per- Phonetic symbols can be a ma- vowel in the French ‘bon’ meates her every word. When jor tool in helping singers to we try it, it’s more like a foggy represent pronunciation more • θ as in ‘think’ and its day in Poynton—but we perse- accurately. And whilst the voiced counterpart ð as in vere. What was that ‘khu’ simple phonetics singers use go ‘this’ sound again—and how do you nowhere near approaching the mark it on your score to differ- complexity and accuracy that • X as in Scottish ‘loch’ or entiate it from the ‘shch’ sound? specialist phoneticians and German Bach speech therapists employ in • tʃ as in ‘chain’ and dʒ as Getting to grips with many their work, most people will in ’gin’ different languages is one of the find three or four symbols that • ʃ as in ‘sheep’ and ʒ as in big challenges for choral sing- might help them get their pro- ‘measure’ ers. Even singing in English nunciation a bit closer to the means pronouncing sounds in ideal. different ways to get different These are just a few of the sim- effects. That bright northern ‘a’ For example, the symbol ə pler sounds choral singers that Neil asks for is quite unlike (also called ‘schwa’) is the most might find useful. A more de- the effete southern variety. frequently occurring vowel in tailed list of phonetic symbols English. It is always associated and their use in foreign lan- guages is available from the One way of simplifying sound with weak syllables, and is fa- IPA website, or at http:// notation is to use the phonetic miliar as the first syllable of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ alphabet. Phonetics is the study words such as ‘about’ or the Help:IPA. of human speech, which con- first and last syllable of tains more than a hundred dif- ‘another’. Other symbols that ferent sounds across all lan- might come in handy include: guages. Issue 27 Page 3 ELGAR AND AFTER—CONCERT REVIEW St George’s Singers’ last con- Cherry Smith, Paul Mummery Choir did full justice to the cert met with rousing applause and Jonathan Gort, who were composer’s intentions, weaving from the audience—and not a joined in other items by Andrea the strong harmonies and rhyth- little relief from the Choir! Millington and Sylvia Glover. mical variations with great con- fidence. Musical Director Neil Taylor After the interval however the “The concert was really had chosen a tremendously Singers found themselves in far Then onto the second perform- enjoyable, full of vitality and ambitious and varied pro- more strenuous and potentially ance of Sasha Johnson Man- energy. I think the choir being gramme for the autumn con- treacherous terrain. ning’s Psalm 91, which was cert. Described as a ‘choral originally written for St Geor- on the edge of their seats Vaughan Williams’ Three Shake- journey through 20th century ges’s Singers, and the concert helped add excitement as well! speare Songs are ravishing to England’ the concert began in finally closed with Jonathan listen to, and wonderful to sing, It was great to listen to works in the familiar, gentle landscapes Dove’s exhilarating Bless the but require enormous control English and understand every of Parry, Elgar and Vaughan Lord, which elicited a virtuoso and precision from all sections. Williams, whose thrilling Mass performance on the organ from word. Altogether, a super in G Minor, heard here only in Then the journey reached Rich- Jeffrey Makinson, and some night!” - audience member extract, surely deserves to be ard Rodney Bennett’s Spell of beautiful and sensitive singing sung in its entirety at one of St Sleep, a work lasting a mere from the Choir.