Christmas Concert 9th. December 2006
at Hamilton Memorial URC, Claughton, Wirral
Guest Conductor - Rodney
Allen; Accompanist - Brian Richards
The Wedgwood-blue sky of the
church roof arched above us, the bell-shaped lights flashed bright sparks off
Christmas decorations, a glittering red earring. A place of good acoustics and
just the right size for the audience, choir and orchestra to burst into 'It Came Upon a Midnight clear' - an
arrangement by Diane Barton.
Listening to this again on a
cold, grey January day I'm suddenly, surprisingly uplifted to a feeling of
inclusion, warmth and mystery. The clear piping of the recorders, the rich
swell of voices.
So, it’s a good start to
look back and review our December concert. Too often we dwell on the bits we
got wrong and forget to celebrate the sublime bits, the passages that gelled,
the way we got caught up in the playing and just felt the music.
Sweelincks, 'Diligam Domine', arranged by Norman Luff, was written for the wedding of Stoboeius four hundred years ago.
We are perfectly at home with the joyful carillons, the answering and
overlapping calls between the parts. The timing changes from a celebratory,
stately processing to a 3/4 passage, aching to be danced.
The WMC Chorale, with their
red velvet scarves and white blouses, used their impressive repertoire of
dynamics and expression on an interestingly varied program of pieces. Rodney Allen was inspired to write 'Song of the Whale' when the 'sad and
lonely' bottle-nose whale who 'came to see Big Ben' was stuck in the Thames in
January 2006. He added in 'the grim and gruesome' Moby Dick and Jonah's 'good
and godly' whale, writing this piece specifically for the choir, with an
audience in mind of children from the associated Wallasey Saturday morning
Music School. There are emotive elongated word endings, harsh words spat out -
'spite' and 'shocked' with an accompaniment of poignant and discordant crashing
colourings. The choir grimace and the pianist flings his music into the air.
'Star Candles' by Michael Head is a choir favourite. Good to sing, with some varied changes of
time signature. The increasing number of notes in each verse reflect the increasing
intensity of the candles' flames, dying away towards the very end. Director
Lowri Allen first came across the composer when he adjudicated her playing in
the 1950s and this carol has long been a favourite of hers. Lowri felt the
appreciative warmth of the audience lifted the singers to their best work right
from the start. The intensity of listening is a powerful force. The choir
completed their first set with John
Rutter's 'The Lord Bless you and Keep
you' - in the mood of a prayer.
The orchestra continued with
Mozart's 'Rondo' , rolling it along
in a fine and lively way. You know that if Mozart were alive today he would be
writing film and ballet scores - you can hear his echoes in many modern, visual
pieces. I catch odd glimpses of songs I half recognise - maybe a bit of 'London
Bridge is Falling Down'. Got me thinking - did Mozart use scraps of
contemporary music in his work and would that have added to the enjoyment of
his listeners?
In contrast we turned to 'Makin' Whoopee' arranged by D. Bloodworth.
I am transported back to big swing bands, basses and flirty descants - wartime
dance halls. That's what it feels like to play - we don't sway, but we could.
There's a barrel organ rumble in one listener's ear. Maybe it depends on where
we first heard the piece, what kind of subconscious memory we've stimulated.
The walking passages echo parts of Mozart's
'Rondo'. It’s a pleasure noting these scraps that link pieces from
different centuries.
Joseph Haydn's 'Menuetto and Trio' is perhaps best skirted over. There was that sense of dread that
comes when you know something important is missing. One member of the audience
did say they had particularly liked the piece - excusing the dire first page
with comforting words. 'Well, the audience took time getting into listening to
the piece, so it seems only fair that the orchestra took time to get into
playing it.' To give balance I was glad to hear another speak more critically
about it. This, however is real time music - no repeats, no second take, but
full of drama and angst.
We glimpse the barrel organ
again, along with full use of sopranino, in Steve Marshall's arrangement of 'Jingle Bells' - with its snippets of
'Frosty the Snowman', 'We Three Kings' and 'Away in a Manger'. We even get a
bit of 'Knees up Mother Brown'. Just a bar or two of each is enough to get the
reference and change the playing mood. Basses mark the ending with deep 'tick
tock, tick tocks' underlying a curly, sharp sopranino final phrase.
Half time, and the audience
stay on. Confidence builds and tension releases.
We start up again with Handel's 'Allegro from op6 no.4'. My
pencil notes have been useful -'soft accompaniment', 'die away' over a c sharp,
'separate but pulsating' above a series of staccato repeated quavers, 'not too
loud' - always important to know your place among the whole sound. 'Practice
high Bs' - never often enough. There are marks to stress hemeolas over several
3/4bars. The quietest and clearest sections were achieved with just one or two
to a part.
Rodney Allen had made an
arrangement of 'Coventry Carol'
especially for the choir ,with three recorders weaving in and out of the music,
using 16th century harmonies and rhythms and the keyboard in harpsichord mode.
Helen Steven on tenor recorder , Jill Foster on bass and Jack Foster on contra
bass made a true union with the voices.
'The Shepherds Farewell' by Hector Berlioz is calm and reflective, with occasional swelling and falling of
sound and intensity. There's a distinctive piano grace note introduction to
each verse - a fragment of Scottish lament.
'Silent Night' had a gospel
treatment. I could almost catch a bit of 1970s Carole King in the piano part;
there's a mood of Mahalia Jackson in the singing. A soft 'doo doo de doo' from
the contraltos accented the pure soprano line. These different treatments make
us revisit the well known words and think of a current relevance.
'Ding Dong Merrily On High' arranged by Henry Geehl had great clarity, diction - pealing bells against sharply pecked
'Ho-san-ahs'. A rich layering.
I loved playing Alison Lewin's 'A Girl In Every Port'.
This had huge chunks of nostalgia - the National Song Book, the BBC Schools'
music programme in the 1950s. It's based around three folk songs - the first, 'A Rovin' starting life as 'In Amsterdam There Lived A Maid' . Tenor 2s start the tune in 'Spanish Ladies' which is then passed
round the orchestra. It's mournful. I imagine ladies in black dresses and
mantillas solemnly walking the quays looking out for their men to return. 'Mermaids' is especially close to my heart; my Mum used to sing this with great
relish and emphasis on the 'jolly sailor boys' being 'up and up aloft' and then
'sinking to the bottom of the sea'.
Steve Marshall composes with
a strong knowledge of playing the recorder. Steve wrote 'Wired For Sound' for the
WRO, who gave it a world premier in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in May. To
me this piece is intensely visual. Plaintive early morning birds call to
thousands of their flock , rising in a series of fast, sustained trills. The basses
echo the theme far below. A 5/4 rhythm of dancing filters through the trees.
There are criss-crossing, repeated, echoed rhythms; sharp, crisp stabbing
notes. The countryside unfolds - long views over lush fields, rolling hills.
The plaintive birds call to each other and rise to join the flock, above the
clouds. Engines roar and speed through
mountain gorges as the birds flock and trill overhead. Sharply expressed train
horns pierce the air.
The composer writes his or
her piece. We all interpret it differently, have our own visions. It is a
collaborative project - different every time.
We disperse into the dark
streets of Christmas lights, holding our final carol, 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' close to our musical hearts. We've
been part of a special organism for a few hours. It's going to set us up for
Christmas.
By Judith Railton - tenor section, WRO; with input from Lowri and
Rodney Allen, members of the WRO and their audience.