“Playing by Ear”

“Earwig van Beethoven”

“Blow Your Own Trumpet”

“Singing by Ear”

Do you have aMusical Ear?

Is singingpiano yourfortE?

Perhaps youhave the

voicEof an

angEl?

Do you preferBEEthovEnto theBEatlEs?

If so, you should join…

The choir is always very keen to welcome new members of all voice parts.If you have a good voice and some ability to sight-read, come along to a rehearsal.The Huddersfield Singers offers:

Challenging and exciting music High musical standards Three annual concerts Friendly, enthusiastic singers Varied and rewarding repertoire, A wide range of social events from mediæval to modern music

The choir meets at 7:30pm on Monday evenings at:Huddersfield Methodist Mission, 15 Lord Street, Huddersfield HD1 1QA

For more information, please speak to a choir member or visit usonline, where extensive details about the choir can be found:http://www.HuddersfieldSingers.com/

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Wedding? Celebration? Special service?

can provide you with that all-important vocal element to make your event even more special, whether you require the full choir or a smaller ensemble taken from its ranks.

For more details, contact the Secretary, Jennifer Cobb, on (01484) 652299

Much easier to win than the National Lottery!

The 100 Club is a fun way to support the choir and maybe win some cash! Pay £1 weekly for a ticket. Numbers are drawn monthly and three prizes awarded:

1st: £50 2nd: £25 3rd: £15

The Club gives a valuable boost to choir funds, and enables us to present more exciting programmes with fine guests. Please join; the more participants there are, the bigger the prizes can be!

For more details, contact the Treasurer, Catherine Rice, on (01484) 663755

Bookings 100 Club

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TonighT’s special guesTJames Mainwaring, SaxophoneJames Mainwaring is an award-winning saxophonist, composer and teacher based in Leeds. With progressing interests in music that integrates composition and improvisation using acoustic and electronic instrumentation, he has performed worldwide, on TV and in various radio broadcasts. He graduated from Leeds College of Music with a first-class BA (Hons) degree and the George Murphy Prize for Saxophone and is currently completing a PhD in composition at the University of York, where

he is recipient of the Sir Jack Lyons Research Scholarship. James is involved in a number of projects, including the Mercury, Mobo and Jazz FM award-nominated Roller Trio. They have been featured on ‘BBC Introducing…’ and Channel 4, were winners of the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award 2011, have toured extensively, and have received much radio coverage and critical acclaim. In 2012 James received a Jazz Services grant to record his debut quartet album with Matthew Bourne, Mick Bardon and Joost Hendrickx. Other projects involve various line-ups including a Leeds-based collective of improvising musicians, the multimedia project Space F!ght and the Jon Brigg Quintet. “Very interesting and totally engaging pieces… terrific, some of the best sax playing I’ve ever heard… extraordinary virtuosity” —Roger Marsh (composer)

“true mastery… At times producing the subtlest sounds whilst at others showing the strength of the instrument.” —Scott Ronan (What Culture)

“Saxophonist James Mainwaring is a resourceful exponent of John Zornian squealings, growling split-note sounds and almost-romantic tenor rumination…” —John Fordham (The Guardian)

“Awesome sax skronk skills” —Lauren Laverne (Channel 4, BBC)

soloisTs from The choircatherine rice, sopranoCatherine was a founding member of the Huddersfield Choral Society Youth Choir, and is also a former member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

pam sykes, contraltoPam is a past winner of the Mrs Sunderland Competition Unaccompanied Folk Song and Contralto Solo classes. She is also a member of the Huddersfield Choral Society.

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JonaThan Brigg, conducTorJonathan is emerging as a highly versatile young musician and is enjoying a busy schedule as a conductor, composer and pianist. Born in Bradford, he honed his piano skills playing with local operatic societies. He went on to study music at the University of Manchester, where he gained a first-class degree in music and was awarded AHRC funding for a master’s degree in composition, for which he gained a distinction. Jon is currently completing his PhD in composition at the University of York. He was recently selected to take part in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival’s European Composers’ Professional Development Scheme, giving him the opportunity to compose for the renowned Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam. Jon was also recently shortlisted for the Britten Sinfonia Opus 2013 composers’ competition. He has worked extensively with some of the most exciting jazz musicians in the UK. As a conductor, he works mainly with choirs but has conducted a number of orchestral works and specialises in the performance of contemporary music. He was a conducting scholar with the Huddersfield Choral Society and helped to establish The Bradford Singers, a chamber choir based at the University of Bradford. He is also the music director of Cantores Olicanæ in Ilkley. Jon has worked at both the Universities of York and York St John, lecturing in composition and working with the contemporary chamber choir The 24, with whom he has toured China twice as a tenor. Jon also collaborates with the experimental vocal duo Tryst, and has performed with them in York, New York and Dublin. His new band, Stoop Quintet, recently performed at the New Bradford Playhouse and at the NCEM as part of the York Spring Festival.

soloisTs from The choirphilippa robinson, sopranoPhilippa took singing lessons at the Vienna Conservatory of Music, and has also studied Lieder and Oratorio at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

matthew pollard, TenorMatthew is soon to become Rector of Bridlington Priory, and this is his last appearance with the Hudderfield Singers after nearly 25 years’ service. The choir wishes him well.

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programme SpiritualS and Folk-SongS

Solo: Lay This Body Down ‥ ‥ ‥ Lament from the American Deep SouthPam Sykes, contralto

CHoiR: Steal Away ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. John Clements CHoiR: Ezekiel ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Michael Brewer CHoiR: Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Mark Hayes Solo: Summertime from Porgy and Bess ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ George Gershwin

Catherine Rice, soprano

Solo: Silver Dagger ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Traditional Appalachian folk-songPam Sykes, contralto

improviSationS and reFlectionS on american Folk themeSJames Wainwaring, saxophone

CHoiR: old american SongS ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Aaron Copland arr. Irving Fine Ching-a-Ring Chaw • I Bought Me a Cat

✯ INTERVAL ✯

the memory oF all that… CHoiR: Lullaby of Birdland ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Andrew Carter CHoiR: They Can’t Take That Away from Me ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Alan Simmons CHoiR: Our Love is Here to Stay ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Alan Simmons DuEt: One Hand, One Heart ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Leonard Bernstein

Philippa Robinson, soprano • Matthew Pollard, tenor

Jazz StandardSJames Mainwaring, saxophone • Jonathan Brigg, piano

CHoiR: a duke ellington Suite ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Hywel Davies Take the ‘A’ Train ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Billy Strayhorn Satin Doll ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Johnny Mercer/Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn Lush Life ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Billy Strayhorn Things Ain’t What They Used To Be ‥Ted Persons/Mercer Ellington Perdido ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Juan Tizol/Harry Lenk & Ervin Drake

Accompanist: Sue Ogden

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programme noTesSpirituals and Folk-SongsA quintessentially American music, Spirituals or Negro Spirituals are a result of the interaction of music and religion from Africa with music and religion of European origin. During the era of slavery in the United States, there were systematic efforts to de-Africanise the captive Black workforce. Slaves were forbidden from speaking their native languages, and were generally converted to Christianity. Because they were unable to express themselves freely in ways that were spiritually meaningful to them, enslaved Africans often held secret religious services. During these meetings, worshippers were free to engage in African religious rituals such as spiritual possession, speaking in tongues, shuffling in counter-clockwise ‘ring shouts’, and communal shouts and chants. It was there also that enslaved Africans further crafted the impromptu musical expression of field songs into the so-called ‘line singing’ and intricate, multi-part harmonies of struggle and overcoming, faith, forbearance and hope that have come to be known as Negro Spirituals. Our concert begins with a Spiritual Lament intoned by Pam Sykes, Lay This Body Down. The choir will then perform three famous spirituals. The first, Steal Away, begins with the famous lines: Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus! Steal away, steal away home, I ain’t got long to stay here. It has been claimed that songs such as Steal Away to Jesus, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Wade in the Water and Gospel Train are secret codes, not only about having faith in God, but containing hidden messages for slaves to run away on their own, or with the Underground Railroad. Steal Away was composed by Wallace Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory, sometime before 1862. Ezekiel Saw the Wheel is a folk-song composed by William L. Dawson that recounts the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel’s divine vision. The song has been covered by such artists as Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, John Lee Hooker, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Tillers, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Charioteers and Gold City. Tonight, the choir will perform Ezekiel in a sophisticated arrangement by Michael Brewer. The lyrics of the famous spiritual Joshua Fit [Fought] the Battle of Jericho allude to the biblical story of the Battle of Jericho, in which Joshua led the Israelites against Canaan (Joshua 6:15–21). However, like those of many other

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spirituals, the words may have had a hidden meaning referring to eventual escape from slavery—in the case of this song, “And the walls came tumblin’ down.” The song is believed to have been composed by slaves in the first half of the nineteenth century. Critic Robert Cummings wrote: “The jaunty, spirited theme hardly sounds like the product of the pre-Civil War era, and would not sound out of place in a ragtime or even jazz musical from the early twentieth century.” Summertime, the famous Gershwin aria from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, captures the summer feeling like no other song. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based. The song soon became a popular and much-recorded jazz standard, described as “without doubt… one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote…” Gershwin’s highly evocative language brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of African Americans in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century. The song is recognised as one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music, with more than 33,000 covers by groups and solo performers. Tonight it is sung by Catherine Rice. Silver Dagger is an American folk ballad, first published in 1907, that probably traces its roots to the British Isles of the late nineteenth century, though it may possibly date from much earlier. In it, the narrator turns away a potential suitor, as her mother has warned her to avoid the advances of men in an attempt to spare her daughter the heartbreak that she herself has endured. Arguably the most famous recording is the 1960 rendition by Joan Baez.

Copland: Old American SongsThe composer Benjamin Britten asked Aaron Copland to arrange a set of American folk-tunes for his Music and Art Festival in Aldeburgh, England. The first set of Old American Songs was written in 1950 and premièred in June of that year by the famous tenor Peter Pears, with Britten at the piano. In 1951 the work was premièred in America with Copland himself playing the piano and baritone William Warfield singing. Copland arranged a second set in 1952. Originally scored for voice and piano, they were reworked for baritone (or mezzo-soprano) and orchestra, and have since been variously orchestrated and arranged. The choir will be performing two of the songs in arrangements by Irving Fine. Ching-a-Ring Chaw is an early minstrel song. Copland found portions of the text in need of rewriting due to its minstrel origins. He said, “I did not

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want to take any chance of it being construed as racist.” In 1950s America, this was a very enlightened viewpoint. Ching-a-Ring Chaw is a jaunty ditty, filled with syncopation and quick syllabic treatment. I Bought Me a Cat is a whimsical children’s song in the style of Old MacDonald, with a verse repeating and adding a new animal with each iteration (the last ‘animal’ being a wife!). The song affords the choir the opportunity to impersonate the various animals, simulating farmyard sounds of the cat, duck, goose, hen, pig, horse and cow.

The Memory of All That…The choir continues its journey through an American Summer with three classic songs about romance, love and loss: Lullaby of Birdland, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Our Love is Here to Stay. They are followed by one of the most famous love duets of all time, Bernstein’s One Hand, One Heart, sung by our very own Philippa Robinson and Matthew Pollard.

A Duke Ellington SuiteDuke Ellington called his music “American Music” rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as “beyond category”. These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the best-known jazz units in the history of the genre. A Duke Ellington Suite captures the world of Ellington, and is a reminder that the music we associate with him is often the product of close relationships with other great musicians in his circle. Juan Tizol’s Perdido brought the ‘Spanish tinge’ to the Ellington sound, and he frequently collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his “writing and arranging companion”. Take the ‘A’ Train was composed after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organisation and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway; directions that began: “Take the A Train…” Hywel Davies’s sophisticated and challenging arrangements are a fresh and vibrant take on these standard tunes. —Jonathan Brigg

AcknowledgementsThe Huddersfield Singers would like to extend their thanks to the volunteers who have helped in the production of this concert by providing refreshments in the interval, selling tickets and programmes at the door, and being of general assistance behind the scenes. Their contribution has been invaluable.

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Next CoNCert: wiNter 2013

Programme design: Richard Hallas Richard@Hallas.net • www.hallas.net • (01484) 460280Programme printing: RiverDigital Ltd info@riverdigital.co.uk • www.riverdigital.co.uk

the huddersfield siNgers President Conductor Accompanist Laurence Jones Jonathan Brigg Sue Ogden

Vice Presidents Pam Cooksey Mike Green John Horrocks-Taylor Hilary Pollard Heather Powell Philip Powell Gordon Sykes Bob Whiteley

Registered Charity Nº 507768

Web Site http://www.HuddersfieldSingers.com/

Cantique de Noël Poulenc Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël Fauré Messe Basse Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine Debussy Trois Chansons de Charles d’Orléans …plus French carols

Saturday, 7th December 2013 at 7:30pmSt Barnabas’ Church, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield