Tenor or bass?
From my early choral youth, I sang tenor after my voice broke. Maybe this was because father, cousins and uncles all sang tenor, and there was an immense amount of pride in who could sing highest.
However as musical education and experience continued and increased, I was informed sagely by one of my uncles (who still sings in his 90’s!) that if I ever wanted to conduct or write music, then I had to be able to read and, if possible, sing, all the parts.
This did prove useful to me in my early composing days, in that I gained an appreciation about what is ’singable’, and how boring it is to sing a part which is difficult or un-interesting.
When writing, I usually compose soprano and bass parts together, then fit in tenor notes, and finish with the poor old altos. Of course it’s not always like that, but there are always notes , or ‘jumps’ which you would prefer not to have to use but are needed for completeness.
But now that my voice is dropping into baritone and bass levels, I revel in the simplicity of finding (hopefully) the bass notes at any time. Anyone with an awareness of chordal structures can generally fall into this line very quickly, whereas the poor old tenors and altos have the constant struggle of keeping in touch with their notes.
So one great advantage of aging, for me, is that I can really enjoy my singing and still make it difficult for the inner lines in my compositions….sorry folks!
The Wonderful Wesleys!
If I dropped the word ‘Wesley’ into a dinner-party conversation, there is a reasonable chance that someone would say ‘Methodist’. ….but maybe not much more. In fact within a relatively-small family there was a large amount of (largely-unknown) talent.
Many people know the phrase at the beginning of the Methodist Hymn Book
Rev John Wesley
which says ‘Methodism was born in song’, and this was largely due to the brothers John and Charles, who were both Anglican Ministers but decided to set up a new church …and we now know this as Methodism.
The two brothers showed a considerable appreciation of music, as well as the emotional effect which music can have within worship. John (1703-1791) was a friend of Pepusch, who arranged the music for ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ .
Charles (1707-1788) had two sons (Charles Jnr., and Samuel) who as children, gave musical concerts at their father’s home in Marylebone.
Charles .Jnr (1757-1834) could, before he was three, play on the harpsichord, any tune he heard, adding a correct bass. He was an organist at various London churches, and composed choral and organ works. The promise of this child prodigy was never completely fulfilled.
His brother, Samuel (1766-1837) was also a gifted child. By eight he had composed an oratorio. He became the finest organ soloist of his day, and was a great extemporizer, composer of choral music, he was one of the first to recognise and promote the music of J.S.Bach, and was a friend of Mendelssohn. In his late teens he temporarily joined the Roman Catholic Church, and at 21 he fell into a street excavation, and was incapacitated for some seven years.
Samuel had a son, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) who certainly continued the talent. He was a chorister of the Chapel Royal, and then organist of three London churches, where he showed his expertise in extemporization. Prime Minister Gladstone recommended that Queen Victoria give him a civil list pension of £100 per year. He is still well remembered by church musicians for his anthems, hymns, and services.
Another child of Samuel Wesley, was Eliza Wesley (1819-1895), who was 40 years a church organist and published correspondence from Bach to her father. Other brothers included…R Glenn Wesley,who was an organist at the Cathedral of Methodism ; Rev Charley Wesley, sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal; Matthew Erasmus Wesley, who was treasurer of the Royal College of Organists; Rev Francis Gwynne Wesley who bequeathed a scholarship to the Royal College of Music for the study of Extemporizing; and Gertrude Wesley who was a soprano and harpist……when the Wesley line finished.
SOME FAMILY!
Tonic Solfa
It’s probably a couple of generations since tonic solfa was the predominant form for learning and singing music. Instead of using notes with ‘open’ or closed figures and different stems and tails, on lines or spaces, each sound is indicated by a syllable such as ‘Do, Re, Mi…..and the length of time is indicated by a dash on the page.
It is very simple and is well-explained in Wikipedia.
……..however, my main reason for mentioning it here is to tell about the recent request by e-mail which I had, following the posting on this blog about John Stainer. I conducted joint choirs in Crucifixion over 40 years ago, and some of the members used Solfa. This I mentioned in the posting. Anyway, someone noticed this and asked if I could still locate these copies. To cut a long story short , I contacted the church, and spoke to an old choir member of mine . She confirmed that the copies are still available, and they are now on their way to South Africa to help an RSCM member to teach local choirs to sing!
Good old internet!
