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** Those on Broadband can also hear several other items!
Rehearsals are normally held on Monday evenings in St James's Church Centre, Church Street, Wetherby from 7.30 to 9.30 pm.
For notes from the internet on 'Olivet to Calvary' which we sang on Good Friday at Boson Spa Methodist Church CLICK HERE
2008
2008
2009 [provisional]
Try MUSIC DYNAMICS for the well known "Choraline" rehearsal CDs and tapes in each part, and also vocal scores, covering most choral works. For a similar service, offering CDs and tapes in each of the four SATB parts of most popular choral works (and approved of by several of our members) try NOTEBASH (on behalf of the Alnwick Choral Society). For an apparently similar (but as yet untried) service, try PARTABILITY
'MIDI' is a simple way of producing music on a computer with very little use of memory or disk space. Because of this it is highly compressed. It can at best sound very simple and, at worst, like a child's 'kazoo' - high quality loo paper over a comb! But it does at least teach you the notes, even if tempo and dynamics are a bit lacking. And it is free!
Many pieces of classical choral music are available in in four-part SATB 'Midi' format on the web. You may have to "Google" a bit, for example, PUCCINI Messa di Gloria in MIDI or CYBERBASS
However, my attention has been drawn to JOHN HOOPER which lists all the sort of stuff we sing, including this season's programme. Each piece is played in MIDI format with an "orchestral" background and can be downloaded in you part - S,A,T or B.
I use this [not being able to sing or read music, I need all the help I can get!] and find it very useful. Anyone using it should read the "Introduction" page first.
Another very useful site is the Royal Free Music Society whose Archive page contains a fair amount of choral music, and also many church hymns and Christmas carols, all available MIDI format in in the four SATB parts, or combined, and some of them are very well done indeed.
One snag I have found is that, having downloaded the MIDI stuff we are singing onto my computer - a doddle - I cannot easily transfer it onto my MP3 player. However, there is an incredibly simple solution, if your MP3 player, like mine, can record. Just play the MIDI file on your laptop (but with the volume turned down - otherwise you will get a lot of distortion) with your MP3 player sitting on it in record mode. Any better ideas?
Please let me know if you find other useful web site addresses. AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS ACCESSING THIS SITE. Looking us up on Google (searching for Wetherby Choral brings us up fist line - we get around 20 'hits' per week) and clicking on the link SHOULD work, and always does when I try, but I'm told there can be problems. What about you?
ANTHONY BLACKMORE
E-MAIL:
John Henry Maunder studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and served as organist in several London churches, including St Matthew's, Syndenham and St Paul's, Forest Hill. Maunder started his career as a theatre composer during which time he wrote the operetta 'Daisy Dingle'. He later devoted himself exclusively to sacred music. While his oratorio 'The Martyrs' became a perennial favourite it is 'Olivet to Calvary' which has retained its popularity and appeal through the generations.
The work is a fine example of music written for the late Victorian/early Edwardian Anglican church. Considered by some to be over sentimental by modern tastes, it contains a sincerity and dedication which, despite being a definite product of its time, has carried the piece through to the modern era. Its popularity is in part due to its simplicity, needing only organ, choir, bass and tenor soloists, it is a work which can be performed by the smallest choirs.
Described as a sacred cantata, 'Olivet to Calvary' recalls the scenes which mark the last few days of Christ's life on earth.Part 1 starts with Christ's jubilant journey to Jerusalem and ends with the scene on the Mount of Olives. Part 2 begins with the Feast of Passover with Christ's commandment to his disciples to 'Love one Another' and end with the Crucifixion at Calvary. It is interspersed with congregational hymns which reflect on the scenes .
While a slight and somewhat outdated work 'Olivet to Calvary', like Stainer's more substantial 'Crucifixion', rewards sincere performance.
Phillip Tolley
British Choirs on the Net
In the 1955 edition of the Oxford Companion to Music Percy Scholes writes that Maunder's "seemingly inexhaustible cantatas, Penitence, Pardon and Peace and Olivet to Calvary long enjoyed popularity, and still aid the devotions of undemanding congregations in less sophisticated areas".