New rehearsals
You may well be asking where 2011 went, most of us have asked ourselves the question, but are getting on with 2012 anyway. Our Christmas Concert now seems long gone, but everyone felt it was a huge success, a happy mix of sacred and secular, fairly divided into two halves. The first half included bible readings to go with some of the carols, and the second half had more carols and other secular spoken items. It is unlikely anyone will forget Brian’s ‘sermon’ from the pulpit, the set of field-mice (with ears) caused lot of amusement, and jingle bells (with bells) was a big hit. In the interval everyone was generous at the wine and mince pies table, at the’Hand made’ stall, and in buying raffle tickets. Even after this everyone dug deep for our charity for the season, which was generously supported in the retiring collection. A very big thank you is due to everyone who came and supported us.
We started back at rehearsals on 5 January, welcoming each other with ‘Happy New Year’ to all those we hadn’t seen since December, which was most of us. Then into a thorough warm-up, more essential than usual after a couple of weeks with not much demanding voice-work, (I cannot of course speak for those who had large numbers of children with them on Christmas Day). There were plenty of copies of Mozart’s Coronation Mass, quite a lot of copies of Bruckner’s motets, two of which are in the concert, and a fair number of Vivaldi’s Gloria, (belonging to those who have their own copy and remembered to bring it along). Although quite a few of us have sung the Mozart before, it was back in 2000, though it must be said it felt a lot longer. We might recognise Mozart’s music when we hear it, but it is far from an easy ride to sing, and I think everyone was determined to do some work on it before next week to try and persuade our memories to give up their secrets.
Bruckner was something else again! We have one of his Motets, Locus Iste, in our choir bag of music, and could probably manage to sing it with only occasional glances at the music, but I certainly don’t remember the time when I had to learn it, so Thursday came as a bit of a shock. The two we shall be singing are Os Justi and Christus Factus Est, perhaps two of the very best, but sight-reading certainly roused the little grey cells to unaccustomed activity. What’s more, they are marked to be sung ‘A capella’ so we shan’t even have our dear accompanist Marion to help us out!
After that, it was a relief to sing a couple of sections from the Gloria, a work we have sung more often and more recently, so a big thank you to our wonderful Jozik for not sending us home in despair! For further developments, watch this space!
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne 11th January 2012)
Mozart’s ‘Great Mass’
Some of our readers may remember our performance of this magnificent work in the autumn of last year. It was brought sharply to mind for me this year as I’ve been at my house in France when all sorts of wonderful musical events happen throughout the summer. One of the week-long events takes place in August in Vézelay , which is a fair way from where I am, but the concerts mostly take place in the cathedral which is right at the top of the hill overlooking a wide area of countryside. You don’t see that during the concert of course, but in spite of a long drive, the arrival is worth the effort.
The concert which had caught my attention was called ‘Mozart Inachevé’, in other words, ‘Unfinished’, so naturally his Requiem was part of the programme. As my French friend Nicole had shown me the leaflet back in May and had taken it away with her, I had no recollection as to what else was in the programme. On the night, I discovered that with the Requiem was the ‘Great Mass’ in C, which I hadn’t thought of as incomplete. However, sitting there mentally singing my part, the thought came into my head that I remembered most of it, bit not the ‘Agnus Dei’. Why? Because there isn’t one!
The programme notes (where I discovered that the ‘Credo’ is incomplete) were excellent, while the choir (Arsys Bourgogne) and orchestra (Camerata Salzburg under Pierre Cao) were outstanding. Of the soloists, the tenor was the weakest, though probably in other company would not have seemed so. The beautiful soprano voice lacked confidence only in the very top register, though of course some of the leaps she’s required to make to reach them must be daunting. The contralto was a delight, and the bass solid and supportive. What was particularly interesting was that the concert was recorded, I caught it on France Musique a few weeks later, and the comments I’ve just made about the soloists were born out quite strongly, Nicole making the same remark.
What a treat, the Great Mass twice in such a short time, with the bonus of bringing back a lot of very happy memories with HCS.
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne 5th October 2011)
Summer concert
No-one can accuse HCS of refusing a challenge! The current programme in rehearsal is a wide-ranging mixture of four-part songs from a variety of sources, and because the styles vary so widely, they require quite a variety of vocal styles. As usual with our summer concert, the choice of pieces, rehearsal time and conducting are shared between Jozik and Barbara, both of whom are hugely helpful in their respective approaches.
So, down to the nitty-gritty! We have folk-songs from the USA, in one of which we need to imitate banjo strings some of the time, plink-ing and bom-ing in the lower voice parts. The other side of the pond also provides us with some ‘crooner’ songs from the late 40’s, well-known to most radio listeners as they are still ‘standards’ today, a couple of more recent ‘pop’ songs, and excerpts from that great Hollywood musical, ‘South Pacific’. From our own musical heritage we have traditional songs in settings both old and new, some of which, if you are over a ‘certain’ age, you may well have learned in school.
Full choir and solo numbers give variety, which make this musical evening more enjoyable both for singers and audience. As our regular venue (Hailsham’s Community Hall) is currently undergoing refurbishment, this summer we are performing in the Parish Church, on Thursday 30 June at 7.30 pm. Hope to see you there!
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne 5th June 2011)
Spring
Oh dear, checking the so-called ‘Latest News’ page, you may see your correspondent has been sadly idle since January. There’s really no excuse, suffice it to say we’ve spent the last few months rehearsing for our spring concert which happened on Saturday 9 April. In spite of fears that it might fall apart, our brilliant MD exhausted himself holding it together and we had a successful evening.
So, what actual news do we have? Well, with one rehearsal after the concert, (Easter being so late), we made a start on our summer programme of traditional and folk songs, ‘Roving in the Dew’ to ‘Yarmouth Fair’, smooching our way through ‘Begin the Beguine’ and snoozing through ‘All Through the Night’. These are just a part of the programme, SOME of them have been sung by SOME of the choir members SOME time ago, so the first results were a little shaky, but after Barbara had patiently helped us along, they weren’t too bad. We’re back after Easter, so by 30 June they will all be fully polished.
Our 50th anniversary year starts in the autumn, and our celebration plans are gradually taking shape. We have already had a special leaflet printed, which is being distributed around the area, so we hope to encourage more audience to our concerts. We had hoped that the Swiss choir whom we visited two years ago might be able to come to Hailsham this year, but sadly this has not proved possible, though we hope it will happen in the future.
Our rehearsal venue, the Community Hall in Hailsham, is to be renoveted as part of major changes to the site, so our summer concert and possibly our Christmas one, which usually take place there have to be staged at a different venue. Watch this space! (Breaking news, it will be at Hailsham Parish Church.)
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne 15th April 2011)
Carol Singing at The Grenadier
Having had the disappointment of a cancelled Christmas Concert this year, we were particularly pleased when a group of us were invited by The Grenadier in Hailsham to sing for their customers on Wednesday, 22 December. Marcus, our Publicity Officer, put together an excellent and varied programme of old favorites, including some of the traditional carols that everyone was able to sing with us, and we were made very welcome by Malcolm, the pub's owner, and his customers.
We were also allowed to take a collection for Rachael's House (see http://www.rachaelshouse.org.uk/) which had been our chosen charity this Christmas and were very pleased to be able to send them a very generous £125. Our thanks to everyone who so kindly donated towards this.
With the snow lying outside, The Grenadier was at it's most welcoming with decorations up, mulled wine on offer, and carols from us: it was a good start to Christmas. At least the Choral Society was able to sing some carols for Hailsham this year. Thank you all at The Grenadier.
(Jan Boyes)
Alas, along with several other local choirs, our Christmas concert on Saturday 18th December had to be cancelled due to weather conditions. If all our choir members as well as all our audience lived in Hailsham, it would have been less of a problem, but conditions in outlying areas, not to mention the main road between Eastbourne and Hailsham, left much to be desired. The general feeling was that getting there at 6pm to set out the hall was probably manageable, but who knew what conditions would be like later in the evening with probable freezing of already icy roads.
We were all very sorry, not only because the Christmas concert is a lovely occasion which we all enjoy very much, but Barbara, our deputy conductor had put in such a lot of work, we had all done our bit having missed one rehearsal anyway due to the weather, and perhaps worst of all, we had no charity collection to support for this season. What feels like freakish weather this year has a lot to answer for in many areas it seems.
However, no point in dwelling on past history, and we are all geared up for the new year when we meet again on January 6th to start rehearsals for our spring concert. Rutter is in the programme this year, his Requiem which is a work many of us have sung before, very different from earlier composers’ versions. It is interesting in that its format varies the usual movements, and it includes a version of the 23rd psalm which appeared earlier that the Requiem itself as a separate anthem. Also in the programme will be anthems from the mighty tome of one hundred anthems, which requires some serious work on the biceps before performance! We always say that singing is good exercise.
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
From the audience perspective:
Well it’s Sunday 14th November 2010 and the sound of last night’s Mozart concert by Hailsham Choral Society is still sounding in my head. Am not sure who puts these concerts together but they are amazing; and I know, having attended most of them with my friend. If you saw the weather forecast for the evening you would have stayed at home toasting your crumpets by the fire, but for those of us with more mettle, we braved the rain and strong winds and headed for the magnificent St Saviour & St Peter’s Church in South Street, Eastbourne.
After the warm welcome we took to our seats; we like to sit at the front as one of us is partially deaf and wears hearing aids, and anyway we like to see all the faces of the choir and orchestra. OK we got there at least 20 mins before the start – well we have to assemble our sweets, look out for anyone we know in the audience and study the programme before the start. I particularly like focusing on an instrument in the orchestra – and as we sit on the right-hand side of the pews, that happens to be the cellos, double bass, clarinets or trombones. After getting to grips with that part of it and admiring your highly talented conductor, we then focus on the choir itself. Actually we don’t see an awful lot of Jozik, the conductor – only his back – but last night he had to turn round and sing the bass section of the Mass! It’s a sea of red blouses and black skirts for the ladies and black suits and ties for the men and we try to work out who is singing which part i.e. sopranos, altos, tenors and basses but some of the works are so complicated that you have to take in the WHOLE choir and just listen.
There were hundreds there last night; I felt we had 3 concerts in 1 really, culminating in the Great C Minor Mass which was unbelievably beautiful – special praise to the soloists but I would do anything to play an instrument in the orchestra or sing in the choir but sadly my talents don’t stretch to that and in any case you have to have an audience so that’s where we intend to stay and appreciate all the talented people.
When we left the rain and wind had stopped and we certainly had a wonderful evening. We treated ourselves to cocktails as it didn’t seem right to rush off home; we wanted to savour the experience and got home eventually after midnight. Thank you everyone.
(Mary Saunders)
Upcoming Concert
Only one more rehearsal to go before our Mozart concert on November 13. Jojik’s rehearsals are an absolute inspiration, and I hope he feels we are approaching the quality in the detail which he’s looking for in the magnificent Great Mass. After each rehearsal we all agree that it’s been hard work but so worthwhile.
We’ll be rehearsing this coming Thursday in the lovely St. Saviour & St. Peter’s church where we shall be for the concert. This is so useful because it gives us a chance to get a feel for the different sound from our rehearsal venue. The acoustic is good, so you get that wonderful re-echo with held final notes (always hoping that your breath will hold out as long as required to reach the silence!) Although the Community Hall in Hailsham where we rehearse each week also has a good acoustic, the church is so much bigger, and the other voices around us sound a little different, so it’s good to have an opportunity to get used to that before the big day.
Technically speaking, we do have one more rehearsal on the day. The afternoon of Saturday is spent with the orchestra and soloists, but this is more for getting the ensemble sound right, and ‘topping and tailing’ the parts where the choir interact with the soloists. It’s always a joy to hear the work finally getting to the last stages of completion, and we look forward to the evening performance when all our weeks of rehearsal finally come to what we hope will be a grand conclusion.
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
September 2010
September slowly brings the full complement of choir members back to rehearsals as we return from holidays and visits to families in other places. It’s always good to get back to the great circle of friends which exists in our choir.
Rehearsals are well under way for the demanding Mozart ‘Great’ Mass which is the principal work in our autumn concert. A couple of the rehearsals between the summer concert and the summer break provided an overview and brief introduction to the work, as we bravely sang through some of the movements – perhaps ‘sang’ is putting it rather kindly! However, having now been back at our weekly meetings since the first Thursday in September, and having had valuable separate rehearsals for the two-choir sections of the work, things are beginning to come together.
As always, Jozik works on the drama and interpretation of the words, and gives endless useful tips on how to achieve the results he is looking for. It’s always hard for amateurs to remember all the elements which should go together to sing well, and keeping them in mind right up to performance is not easy, but our conductor shows endless patience and good humour, so maybe we are doing some things right!
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
July 2010
Well it’s about time we updated our news as lots has happened these last few months.
In March we performed a splendid concert at All Saints’ Church in Eastbourne. The first half consisted of the most melodic, and actually quite difficult to perform, Magnificat by John Rutter. He stated that his intention was to write a Magnificat ‘redolent of Mediterranean sunshine and celebration , evoking the spirit of the many exuberant festivals held throughout Europe in honour of the Virgin Mary’. This was followed by A Little Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott. It was interesting to see our audience sit up and take note as the Jazz Trio started to play this very exciting piece. They had only met for the first time at the afternoon’s rehearsal but their absolute mastery of their instruments and their obvious enjoyment gave the choir exactly what they needed to give a rousing performance! We hope Peter Nickalls (piano), Tom Fry (double bass and, incidentally the son of two of our members Ian and Barbara!) and Simon Whittaker (drums) will join us again one day.
After the interval came that old favourite Faure’s Requiem – always such a beautiful piece to sing and hopefully listen to. Helen Rowe was our soloist that evening and we always enjoy having her with us.
After a little break for Easter it was on with the show and rehearsals for our Summer Concert – a cornucopia for choral delights from Elizabethan times to the 20th Century. We galloped through the ages with wonderful encouragement from Jozik and Barbara, as well as Marion playing for all she was worth. And to add to everyone’s delight the charming Swiss soloists whom we had met in Baden last summer - Suzanne and Rudolf – performed duets from Mozart and Mendelssohn.
Now we are coming to the end of rehearsals for this summer ‘term’ and taking a short break before we return at the beginning of September. We have started rehearsing for November’s concert when we will be performing Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. Details of the date and venue are on the Concert part of this website – we hope to welcome a large audience! Our last rehearsal this week will also be a social gathering to celebrate the 70th birthdays of 6 choir members..
We enjoy the social side of our choir as well as the singing! A ‘hard core’ regularly pay a visit to the pub after Thursday rehearsals to lubricate our vocal chords and wind down. In May a crowd of us, including various spouses and partners, had a marvellous week in Brittany staying in a complex of gites right in the middle of the French countryside. We played boules, visited the local sights including the seaside, and enjoyed plenty of French cuisine and wine together. We are wondering how soon we can repeat the experience!
We are now approaching our fiftieth year and our hard-working committee are making plans for a series of celebrations so keep in touch and we hope you will join us for all or some of them.
(Nicola Williams)
March 2010
Concert date is rapidly approaching, and after a rather less-than-satisfactory rehearsal at the last one in February, that on 4th March restored some confidence to our long-suffering conductor. We are now running the works through, on the basis that note-bashing has no place this late in the day (thank goodness we’ve all been working hard on our own practice time). This week (11th March) we are lucky enough to have our rehearsal actually in the church where the performance takes place, always a useful exercise.
Everyone is really enjoying the music, the Rutter Magnificat has proved quite a challenge even though many people had sung it before, and the Chilcott Little Jazz Mass, which seemed really tricky to start with, is now settled in as we get to feel the rhythms rather than counting the bars. We always look forward to performances, (sometimes with trepidation!) and this one is no exception, it’s really good to be doing something so different from our usual style of music.
New Music
Well, our first rehearsal was cancelled due to the snow, but luckily we have a fantastic ring-round system for such occasions – once the decision is made, the secretary and chairman each ring half of the committee members, who each phone a designated number of singers, thus covering all members without anyone having to do too many. So, we finally got together on Thursday 14 January, all thoroughly delighted to renew our friendships after the Christmas break. Then we started! A sing-through the Fauré Requiem offered a nice, gentle beginning, it being a work many of us have sung frequently, though it was harder on three potential new members, not all of whom were familiar with it. The Rutter Magnificat took up most of the rest of the evening, also sung before by many (though fewer than the Fauré), but not too demanding for the most part. Then this week (with another two potential new members) we tackled Bob Chicott’s Little Jazz Mass for the first time. Wow - what a shock to the system! All cross-rhythms and awkward little rests where you don’t expect them, you just have to feel it rather than count the bars. The first rehearsal of any new work is frequently a bit tricky, but this was a real challenge for many of us - great but definitely challenging. We’ve had an unexpected disappointment, our Swiss contact choir, who we had hoped to welcome for a return visit in our 50th anniversary year starting in 2011, are not now able to join us. It will probably happen in 2013, though it’s hard to be thinking that far ahead, maybe we should try to see if our Belgian choir contact might like to come!
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
January 2010
Well, here we are into yet another year, and we are starting back at rehearsals on Thursday 7 January with an interesting mix for our spring concert on March 20th. It’s always good to have a variety of pieces combining known favourites with something which not all members of the choir know, and we’ve certainly achieved that both with composers and music. The Fauré Requiem is a favourite with both choirs and singers, but how many non-singers know that, besides all those popular carols, John Rutter also wrote a delightful Magnificat? To complete our programme, we have Bob Chilcott’s Little Jazz Mass, which few of our members have sung before, but those who have were delighted to hear it was being included. Something old, something new then, and enough to keep all our brains from furring up this spring!
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
HCS celebrate Christmas.
The Hailsham community Hall, which is our regular rehearsal venue, was once again packed out with an enthusiastic audience for our seasonal offering. On one of the few fine evenings of recent weeks, mainly local people flocked to fill every available seat, to listen to the choir’s offerings and to join in with old favourites. By opening with the choir among the audience for ‘The Boars Head’ carol, everyone was instantly involved – if possibly almost deafened by the proximity of around fifty singers in full choral mode! Although it can be hard to find new material to present, Barbara Edwards, our deputy conductor, always comes up with a really varied and enjoyable programme, covering carols from all over the world. Some were new arrangements of familiar tunes, others completely new, and being interspersed with the audience carols, both the old and the new received an airing. Our Christmas concert always supports a local charity, and this year the Quicken Trust, which works with the inhabitants of an African village to improve their lives, was the recipient of a generous retiring collection. There was also (of course!) a raffle and a ‘hand-made’ stall, this last offered an amazing range of goods from patchwork items (made by Barbara mentioned above, a multi-talented lady indeed) to cakes and sweets. People bought generously, and when the first raffle winner was drawn and turned out to be the choir’s retiring chairman, there were good-natured cries of ‘fix!’ all round. We really appreciate the local following which is building up for our concerts in our ‘home’ venue, and will be there again in the summer to welcome all comers.
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
AUTUMN CONCERT 14 NOVEMBER 2009
Well, no-one ever suggested we weren’t prepared to try something new, and this concert, while the music is anything but new (Haydn’s, in honour of his death 200 years ago), “The Seasons” is seldom performed or heard. I knew only one person who had sung it and only two who had been to a performance. As one singer in the audience asked afterwards, ‘Why aren’t we singing this?’
Of course, Haydn’s ‘Creation’ is his best-known and loved choral work, and most choirs have sung it at some time, as we have ourselves, but ‘The Seasons’, though even more popular at the time it was written, has unjustly faded from view. It follows the seasons of the year, with choruses and solos celebrating the events of each in turn. While some might regard the high-minded ‘From thee, oh industry, springs every good’ with cynicism, or argue with the rollicking deer-hunting chorus, surely no-one could complain at that in praise of wine, successively referred to as “old age’s friend” and “of pain and grief the cure”! Admittedly, in the current politically-correct climate this could be misinterpreted as binge drinking, but for those of us who go for a harmless pint or its equivalent after rehearsals it undoubtedly rang a chord.
The weather over the whole weekend was atrocious, with gales and torrential rain (which appropriately came at some relevant seasonal moments). However, our relatively small but select audience were enthusiastic, loud in praise not only for our terrific soloists, but also for the excellent orchestra, and indeed the choir’s performance under our conductor Jozik. We certainly enjoyed it, and look forward to greater exposure in the future of this thoroughly enjoyable work.
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
SEPTEMBER 2009 - Now approaching our 49th year, everything just seems to get better and better! Making music in company with a group of like-minded people has to be one of the best therapies in the world. However we may feel when arriving at rehearsal on a Thursday evening, by the time we finish we are all feeling in tune with the world, (and sometimes with the piano too).
After our highly successful Christmas 2008 concert in the Hailsham Community Hall, our 2009 spring concert of 'Cathedral Classics' at St. Saviour and St Peter's in Eastbourne was very demanding, (both for choir and listeners!) with a range of music from the 16th to the 20th centuries, but was very well received by our audience. In complete contrast, we brought Gilbert and Sullivan to the Hailsham Community Hall in June, with extracts from 'The Pirates of Penzance' and 'Iolanthe', followed by a concert performance of 'Trial by Jury'. The highlight here was definitely our conductor Jozik singing (and acting) the part of the Judge. Complete with gown and wig, he took the hall, and the plaintiff, by storm. There's no doubt about it, it is very satisfying to sing such a wide variety of music.
We are just back from our fantastic trip to Switzerland, to visit the Kirchenchor Cäcilia in Rütihof near Baden. The weekend included a fascinating town tour with two of the Baden Tourist official guides, both of whom were excellent and entertaining, and since it included a climb to the top of the ruined castle above the town, we all got our full quota of exercise on Saturday morning. Our hosts gave us a wonderful social evening in their home village, where we sang a short 'cabaret' for them, greatly enhanced, not only by the alcohol, but by Jozik also singing several songs, thereby starting up his very own fan club in Switzerland. On Sunday afternoon we sang a concert jointly with our host choir in the church in Baden, (Vivaldi, Mozart and Handel) to about 800 people, after which aperitifs were served in the square in front of the church. The day finished with a riotous meal in an Italian restaurant in Rütihof, everyone sang, and unbelievably the evening ended with the Hokey Cokey! Some of us may have cringed, but, believe it or not, we were asked to supply the words for them, so no doubt we shall be singing it again when their return visit comes up in 2011 - already in the forward planning stage. A crowd of us are planning a week in Brittany next May, and I bet we shall sing there too!
Singing is obviously a major part of our lives, have you tried it recently? If you used to sing and currently only do so in the bath, why not come along and meet us? We are always glad to welcome new singers, especially if they aren't afraid of enjoying themselves.
(Rosalind Taylor-Byrne)
We welcome new members and at present we would particularly welcome Tenors and Basses. As any singer knows, Tenors especially are like gold dust! If you would like to come and sample the music and social atmosphere of the society we would like to see you. Make your way to the Hailsham Community Hall any Thursday at 7.30pm. Just click on MEMBERS to see details of our rehearsals and planned concerts.
Please come and give us a try!