Recent Events |
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24th June 2010 Concert The Chapel For SS Mary & Andrew, Whittlesford |
We began with a rousing canon before demonstrating the late 17th century practise of ‘lining out’ in which the parish clerk would laboriously chant each line of a psalm for the mainly illiterate congregation to repeat. We then stepped back in time to do some of the beautiful pieces which were sung in the homes of the nobility and gentry in the 16th and early 17th centuries before we moved on through our beloved West Gallery period to the present day. Our performance encompassed unaccompanied American shape-note pieces of the 18th and 19th centuries, Primitive Methodist ‘ranter’ pieces complete with concertina, tambourine, euphonium and our 1830’s keyed bugle before concluding with pieces by living composers in the shape-note tradition. A truly joyous romp through several centuries of a village’s religious musical history. |
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5th June 2010
Annual Church Tour |
We had a glorious day for our 2010 tour which visited the northern tip of Bedfordshire. We began at St Mary Magdalene, Melchbourne, a Georgian church with a medieval tower and Jacobean porch. Next we went to Upper Dean All Hallows where a ‘specially fine’ 15thC angel roof was among the many interesting features as well as a memorial to Francis Dillingham, born at Dean, who was one of the 47 scholars who translated the King James Bible. Shelton St Mary provided us with our delightful picnic place, a shady spot in the garden of the Old Rectory. We then sang in the church there, whose features included a six-legged Saxon font. Our last visit was to Yelden St Mary where, after our final singing session we relaxed, tired and happy with a cup of tea and a cake! Pictures |
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8th May 2010 St Mary Magdalene |
A concert demonstrating the evolution of a village’s church music from the late 17th century to the present day. Included were two pieces, Rotterdam and Harlem, written by Peter Hellendaal and published in Cambridge in 1794 in ‘A Collection of Psalms for the use of Parish Churches.’ Stephen Simperingham, church warden of St Mary Magdalene, was listed as one of the subscribers to this publication on behalf of his church so in all probability these pieces were sung in this very church around 1795. How exciting it was to bring them to life again more than 200 years later. Our concert included pieces in the shape-note singing tradition—the North American equivalent of West Gallery music. This is a living tradition and we had the great good fortune to be led in two of his own pieces by Mick Verrier, one of only two UK composers. Pictures |
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12th December 2009 St Mary the Virgin |
Part of St Mary’s Crib Festival, our concert consisted of carols and seasonal pieces but also included a few glees. These were drinking songs expressing fraternal sentiments often written to be sung in gentlemen’s singing clubs known as Catch or Glee Clubs popular from the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century. Our readings ranged from fictional accounts of Christmases past, often warm, gay and lively affairs contrasting with factual items discovered in the local archives. These centred on the poor of Maulden especially arrangements to educate the poor children including accounts of the charity school and the workhouse. Pictures |
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28th November 2009 The British Schools Museum |
A return visit to one of our favourite venues to give a Christmas concert with a difference—our first venture into mumming with a play from 1833. Following the interval a fiery dragon was among the adversaries finally slayed by the bold and swaggering Saint George in spite of the restorative powers of the Doctor being exercised several times. All ended well as you might guess and we were soon back in our places to sing the second half of seasonal music put into context by poems and Christmas readings. Pictures |
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St Peter's Church |
A harvest concert to raise funds for a memorial garden. The programme consisted of West Gallery and American shape-note pieces interspersed with information on their historical setting and snippets from the local archives. In particular we heard about the cost of keeping the church free of sparrows. The churchwardens’ accounts of 1826 showed that threepence per dozen was paid for their dead bodies. It must have been a real problem because by 1828 the bounty had been extended to include their eggs. Following the event our generous hosts invited us to take the harvest decoration which was no longer required and we were delighted to leave laden with pumpkins, marrows and squashes. Pictures |
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27th September 2009 St Leonard's Church |
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30th May 2009
Annual Church Tour |
For this year’s tour we dusted off our passports and went ‘over the border’ into Cambridgeshire where we arrived at St Mary Magdalene, Ickleton, to a wonderful welcome. We then sang at St John’s, Duxford, before we moved on to SS Mary and Andrew, at Whittlesford, where we enjoyed our picnic lunch. We could not provide our usual sarsaparilla due to the late arrival of the root but were thoroughly spoiled with goodies supplied by our hosts. They then joined us in song until we moved on to St Edmund’s, Hauxton, where we ended our tour. The day was memorable for the warmth of the welcome we received everywhere and the company of visiting singers old and new. Pictures |
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9th May 2009 St Mary's Church of Everton-cum-Tetworth |
This concert was part of the Diocese of Ely 900 Years Celebrations. It included some 18th century American pieces as well as a selection of West Gallery pieces used for the different seasons and social occasions. The words of one of these, Peterborough, were written by The Reverend John Berridge (1716 – 1793) who held the living of Everton from 1755 until he died. Pictures |
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29th November 2008 St Michael’s Church |
Our hosts had asked for a concert with some 'local' historical context and an Advent theme. Though close to Christmas the brief was quite specific; no carols! A nineteenth-century noble cricketing vicar (the Reverend the Lord Beauclerk) with little time for his church or congregation fitted the first part of the bill admirably and some diligent research in our music manuscripts for specifically Advent pieces did the rest. We sang and played to a full church, and took a glass of wine with our hosts without ever mentioning Christmas! Pictures |
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11th October 2008 The British Schools Museum |
Another harvest concert but this time the venue gave rise to some impromptu, unscripted dialogue involving a cane! Suffice to say that no chorister was going to risk being out of order. And no, we didn't let our Musical Director take it with him when we left. |
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5th October 2008 St Mary's Church |
This harvest concert was to raise funds for a new boiler so it was no surprise that it was cold. BBC Three Counties Radio was there to record the event. The piece went out the following Sunday including interviews with our Musical Director and our player of the serpent and other historic instruments. Pictures |
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28th June 2008
Annual Church Tour |
The tour began at St Mary’s Church, Everton followed by St John the Evangelist, Moggerhanger. After a picnic lunch with home-made ginger beer and sarsaparilla we moved on to The Abbey Church of St Leonard, Old Warden. Our final visit was to All Saints Church, Sutton where we sang Isaac Smith’s ‘Abridge’ to the accompaniment of their splendid barrel organ. The day drew to a close with a delicious tea including ‘Warden Pie’, from an ancient Warden pear recipe. Pictures |
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26th April 2008 St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church, Olney |
This concert concluded a special day of celebration to mark the re-launch of the Cowper & Newton Museum following an intensive programme of work over the winter. |
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20th April 2008 Thurleigh & Keysoe Row East Baptist Churches |
A celebration of 200 years of these two Bedfordshire ‘causes’, bringing back the music which the ordinary local people once sang in their chapels. |
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5th April 2008 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire |
The quire's performance concluded an annual study day at Bedford School. The programme represented music throughout the West Gallery period linked with historical fact for this expert audience. |
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22nd December 2007 Knuston Hall |
A concert portraying A Georgian Christmas was the after dinner entertainment for a themed event. The singing was linked by amusing historical anecdotes one of which, involving mistletoe, was unrehearsed and left one of our female singers very surprised! |
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10th December 2007 Bedford Central Library |
A concert based on the evolution of West Gallery music as part of 'Good Afternoon', a series of daytime lectures at Bedford Central Library. |
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5th December 2007 St Andrew & St George’s Church, Stevenage |
A return visit to Stevenage to provide a taste of nineteenth century Christmas pieces. |
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6th October 2007 Holy Trinity Church |
A harvest concert to raise money for 21st century plumbing for this ancient Saxon Minster church. |
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28th September 2007 Hitchin Ceilidh |
A selection of Bedfordshire West Gallery music was the entertainment between the two halves of the dancing. |
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24th June 2007 Annual Church Tour |
This was a tour of four of Bedfordshire’s most interesting old churches and chapels, some with galleries, with a picnic lunch at Stevington Windmill, and ending with tea and scones at Roxton Congregational Church. |
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21st June 2007 Bunyan Meeting Free Church and Museum |
A concert for the Friends of the museum. It gave us great delight to sing in the place where the manuscripts which provide much of our repertoire were found and to be able to benefit the organisation which made them available to us. |
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3rd May 2007 St Peter’s Church |
This concert, part of the Ouse Valley Arts Festival, was enlivened by an account of the heinous crimes of a late 18th / early 19th century vicar of Harrold which we dug out of the archives. |
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7th January 2007 St Mary’s Church |
A Christmas choral evensong including a local, metrical version of the Nunc Dimittis and the Magnificat sung to a tune found in a 19th century collection by an ancestor of one of our fiddlers. |
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6th January 2007 St Denis' Church |
A carol concert sung from a gallery overlooking the grave of Timothy Matthews, a curate of Colmworth. We were lent, and played, the bugle with which he went about Bedfordshire announcing his presence and intention of preaching. |
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