Fridays at Four - Spring Done

26 March 2021

Our ever-enterprising MD’s selection of guests for this second term of Fridays at Four sessions has been another remarkable achievement. Last term his four choirs worked on the same programme of music, so we all of the sessions were directly related to music we were all singing. This term has been more complex, but he selected guests who nodded in the direction of repertoire for each choir, but were of interest to all of us.

We had two sessions on the music of J. S. Bach (the Royal Leamington Spa Bach Choir sang a selection of his Motets). Firstly on 29 January we heard our own répétiteur, Ivan Linford, talking about - and playing on his house organ - music from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein. We had the opportunity to sing chorales from our own homes, and then see how Bach weaved those melodies into organ works. Then on 5 march Professor Jennifer Smith joined us from Ohio University in the USA to talk about her work on Bach’s Motets, and her doctorate exploring the Singet dem Herrn and Der Geist hilft unsere Schwachheit auf. We explored basic Schenkerian analysis and learned about Bach’s astonishing structural constructions.

On 12 March we heard from Terry Heard from the Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak Choral Music about two pieces which were being rehearsed by the Huntingdonshire Philharmonic Choir, Dvořák’s Mass in D and Janáček’s setting of the Lord’s Prayer, Otče náš. The Wellingborough Singers have been working on two concert programmes this term, one of music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, which will be explored in a Fridays at Four session next term. The other is a programme of music by Dan Forrest, and we were delighted to welcome Dan on 12 February. Indeed, we filled up all 100 available slots online, with a number more having to watch it later on "catch up".

On 26 February we welcomed another composer, Cecilia McDowall, who both we and the Royal Leamington Spa Bach Choir have worked with in past years, and talked about her music. She was joined by William Fox, Sub Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral, who has just released a CD of her complete organ music. It was a fascinating session, especially when we discovered that William had been trained by our MD when he was a probationer chorister in the choir of York Minster.

Our MD gave a talk on Tallis’s Spem in alium on 19 March, and the final session of the term explored Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Choral Music. The guest for this session was the effervescent Arreon Harley-Emerson, who joined us from Delaware in the USA, where he is Director of Music and Operations at the Choir School of Delaware, and head of Equity Sings, a consultancy committed to the principles of Diversity, Equality, Inclusion, and Belonging.